generations blood genesis
by Navage
Summary: its a complete rewrite of the history of marvel, not exactly being marvel and existing beyond it. it takes powers and concepts of the mavel community alike injecting them into a complelling story focusing on one boy called navar, aka blood


GENERATIONS

Book one: blood genesis.

CHAPTER ONE

In darkness.

in darkness, sometimes only in darkness, can I truly rest. In darkness nothing exists except vague shadows of foreboding shapes all bending and changing to suit the changing moods of the darkness. I like the darkness, its never definite as if like a creature a breathing creature brooding its way around you, trying to envelope you in its melancholy. But is it the darkness that's the melancholy, or is it us? It begs a question of darkness's inherent evil how can darkness be evil? Darkness isn't a living thing that can form and change, kill or murder. No its people that are evil, people that use darkness to do their dirty work. Much like guns and their application to kill people, however it is not them that kills people. its the sick people that pull the trigger, this is why, I like the darkness, I like the way its misunderstood, this is where I think it gains its melancholy its existence and its albeit personality because of peoples fears of the unknown. I can relate to the darkness. I believe myself to be misunderstood. Though my body may be frail pumping through its veins poisonous blood Bourne of bacteria that is trying to eat my body from the inside out. and so I lay, frail sick and lying on this hospital bed, relating myself to the one thing I've known as a constant, more over the one thing I've liked as a constant; of course, there's the doctors, their students all marvelling at the piece of work in front of them, oh yes to them, a marvel is what I am, a piece of work to observed and catalogued in the archives, to be learned upon. Of course there's always the one being in the world that looks upon me with love, with those eyes, that can say so much without a word, she shares her love. but through them I can also see her disappointment for the life I should of lived, friends, girlfriends, even living just a life, something with ups and downs not just the same thing every day, me laying limp in the bed slowly dying, as always... slowly dying

DAY.

Whispers. Outside the door, it's always whispers;

" Mrs Keelan Im just not sure how much longer either of its gonna work, so far the blood thickeners have slowed Navar's degenerative rate almost as equal as that of its natural body rate, however his red blood cells are starting to build up an immunity to the treatment and the regeneration of his blood cells is decreasing at an alarming rate. On top of this prognosis, the Sydney university just pulled out ther funding of his case, we will no longer have the funds nor the means to keep treating Navar. Im just not sure its worth trying anymore, maybe you should start finalising your plans for your son, there's not much we can do in any case."

i hear degenerative breaths and spasmodic attempts at talking, a loud thump on the door, probably my mum breaking down with the news, the horrible morbid news and then. More whispers;

"How long… doctor… How long?" asked my mother through muffled tears and deep breaths

" I cannot say ms Keelan, this is an unknown case, worst case scenario if we find no more funding, weeks maybe months before tragically the body begins to eat one of its vital organs, most probably the heart first, of course we would take a blood test, but all of this is guess work, we are in far to of an unknown case, as such the team has always generally agreed that Navar's blood being left to touch the outside atmosphere, is most probably dangerous" responded the doctor as reverently as he could, I knew this doctor he was a caring be speckled man, one of the very few able to look past my "amazing" case and see the body of a teenage boy desperate for change…and some sort of life. yes of course my case. my "amazing case" first in its kind they say, said i was born with a rare blood virus, one wherein my blood itself contains flesh eating bacteria or so they hypothesise from the amount of tests they can do without puncturing my skin, they don't know much other than the fact that my body has showed signs of my blood slowly degenerating my organs and skin from the inside. my blood has been slowed down by blood thickeners and loaded with anti-biotics to try and fight the bacteria, and so my body itself is literally trying to eat itself from the inside out, its so terrible to have a feeling that the very blood inside, the blood that pumps through your very veins wants you dead, and so I've never been able to bleed, the doctors are baffled as to what would happen if my blood was allowed contact with the outside of my body, furthermore. What other things my blood can pick up, such as airborne bacteria not to mention what other things in the air could try to kill me. And this is my curse, living against my body, my mind trying to fight its very body itself.

Voices.

My mother's, she's always the first in my room every morning every day, always the first to wake me from my induced sleep where I dream nightmares of a bug like villain tearing up my very inside laughing manically.

"good morning sweetheart" she chimes, as if everything were in the world were fine, as if we were oblivious to everything going around us, she wore as usual her attire of track pants, ugg boots and some form or rudimentary sweater I suppose this is just the evolution of the lifestyle she's adapted to, her strawberry blonde hair was wisped into a bun at the top of her hair which in appearance appeared to be with little ease, she turned to face me, her face wore the expression of a million years of worry, wrinkles and pigmentations showed that she have lived and though much more than any one person should

I worked up my throat into speech

"Good morning mom" my voice came out corse and sporadic however a little better than usual. She walked over towards me and pulled up a chair. Her usual chair, adorned with her cushions and other comfortable memorabilia she brought in from home to make me feel a little better about being stuck in this god forsaken room. She placed her warm hand against my palm, and with it I could feel my hand beating against hers with my corse thick blood.

"They say their going try some new treatment… They say that this could help, you could be better son. You could finally be better" of course this was a lie, another lie to lure me into a false sense of security in which to make me feel better.

"Mum. You never were much of a liar" her eyes welled up she rested her head against me, and some of her warm tears pooled around my heart. hmmf my heart…isn't that source of all these problems?

CHAPTER TWO

In memoriam

Thump. The sound that came so often, it was as-per-usual another constant of this hospital I so struttingly analysed, this was of course the boy in the room next to me. He was a loud annoying boy, id seen him a couple of times in my transit to other wards and doctors. he wore a vicious scowl, he was always angry always thumping things and being violent, he had the privilege of being violent of being freely to move and he abused it. he had medium length black hair which grew always crudely spiked into a makeshift Mohawk (where the hair still grew), he was about the same age as me, a little larger, 19 but looked about 23, his eyes showed no measure of experience or caring, only hate they were the darkest brown I'd ever seen possibly even black, he was muscular and has scruffy patches of facial hair growing over his fair pale white skin, I never knew what this boys condition was, why he was in here. I knew only his name Sinder king I called him the Simkin, and for the that he had the luxury of being active and abused his privilege to live a semi-normal life, and I hated him for that.

I hadn't heard any more whispers about my case or what to do with me for a while naturally I expected the worse I always do, but this time I knew because family and supposed friends id hardly ever seen came flooding into too see me, people I had never even met that through on a false pretence of knowing me and; of course caring. Some even brought in there girlfriends to gawk at me, hmmf girlfriends a luxury of another life much like everything else. I hated people for not being grateful for the most simplest of life's pleasures. Life tolled on much like this for a further month; however my body started to grow more uncomfortable, my began flowing faster and started to burn a little every time it past my heart, I did my best too put on a happy face to my many visitors. always the same faces fading into an endless glue of remorse and empathy it was all the same for me, I began to notice doctors coming more infrequently and each time with further more distant worries on their faces, I could feel everything descending to a spiral of sleep death and finally. Rest.

Until this day, this day was different. before me stood an odd man, he was staring at me (almost through me) with his powerful brown eyes and his chiselled features, his face was framed with a firm brown beard and brown hair pulled back into a neat pony tail. He wore a suit of what looked like much distinction, or was it the man that oozed such distinction? hmmf further analizations of items and their inherent characteristics. What was odd that in all of my study of this large stocky man with his thick hands that looked like he could strangle a bear in one go was that I still did not know what to think of him. He stared at me for what seemed like a lifetime boring his eyes into me searching me for something I did not know what, until finally he spoke, with a voice as gruff as his hand but with the poise and dignity of an English scholar

"So you…are "the case" indeed my boy, tell me how do you feel?"

It seemed as if this question required no answer nor was I willing to give it to this…stranger who came to scrutinise me, no I refused to waste my valuable breath on this man, breaths of which Im sure were at this point numbered. I raised one of my eyebrows in response. He chuckled a little, and stepped a little further his steps booming along the silent room as the sun began to sink behind the curtain. He raised his hand to my forearm and placed it upon me taking my arm and bringing it up not much further than an inch, I arm did nothing still remaining limp as I felt my blood strain to make it around my hand with only the slight amount of inclination. He "hmmmed.. and aaahed" for a further couple of minutes after putting my arm down. He looked at me some more and was still trying to grasp what was in front of him as if I was some sort of alien.. Perhaps maybe I am an alien, I thought about it for a while until he spoke again

"My dear Navar I come from a prestigious..."firm" lets say, and we have decided to take an interest in your case, you need not worry you will have the best funding in the world to help you and your case. We could even if you wish move you to a better hospital. Closer to us if you want, in Canada, naturally we will leave this up to your superiors I merely wished to meet the person behind my "firm's" new found commotion. Do you have any questions before I leave you my boy?

I thought about it for a while. What would be the best thing to ask, and the easiest way to say it before it began to hurt again? I thought for a whiling weighing ideas over in my head trying to think of what I could possibly ask this odd man, and his odd agenda as he stood in front of me. The answer was fairly simple.

"why?" my voice seemed to shock the man, I think he was not expecting any questions at all, he smirked again and began to stride up to the door and just as he was about to leave spoke as he opened the door.

"That my dear Navar... Remains to be seen"

The next week things did indeed begin to change more and more doctors came, not to gawk or study but to what seemed to be... help, Well to do the best they could. My room became decorated with a number of useless luxuries, a new TV, a computer I never bothered to use and even an ipod. To which I had no idea how to use or even what music I liked considering I never really listened to music, again a luxury spoiled upon the ungrateful. I spotted the boy in the other room the "Simkin" stare in a couple of times, wearing a cruel scowl of more envy and disgust then ever before. I suppose I was grateful he never really entered, because there wouldn't be anything I could do to stop him from taking anything, needless to say i wasn't sure if he could take anything anyway I never knew why the boy was here, I just always wished that he wasn't.

My mother came in as she always did; wearing a grin I hadn't seen for a long time, almost looking a little younger than she had for a long time. She bought in a picture of where we used to live; she even showed it to me on a map I liked maps, so I took to studying every thing and there relevance to where I lived, things like where I would of gone to school, where I would of played, and the many other details of a life I was deprived of living. The problem with all this was that even though everything around me was growing better, even happier, I still felt like I was getting worse. I decided to tell my mother this the next time she came in on one of her usual visits. She came soon after I thought about telling her, I told her how I felt, how I was worried it wasn't getting any better I told her everything. She just stared at me with her caring green eyes she stroked my hand and began to speak.

"Its ok sweetheart, we have the best doctors now, the best of anything because of that wonderful firm, this is just the bad end of a rainbow! Imagine it as a journey, and the journey is nearly is at an end!" As per usual her glass is half full personality shone through. I grinned a smile and began hearing her stories about the life's and oddities of our cats, fish, and neighbours we had at home. Soon enough, day faded into night, and I eventually fell asleep just before I heard my mum leave.

Night time.

the darkness around me felt a little different then it did before this wasn't the one I knew before, it held a sense of foreboding, not the foreboding I thought it SHOULD have, but actual foreboding it wasn't until I heard an unearthly sound, Much like something that boy made, but different because it shook everything! I could hear things around me crumbling, the sound; it rattled up every bone in my body, it shook my bed, and finally it carried with it a heat, a heat so intense I thought I was going to die (as if I was really ever living) the last thing I felt was an odd sensation I had never felt before, my skin teared and a ceremonious feeling flowed through me as my blood flowed out of a gash along my wrist as a piece of debris broke off from the roof. that feeling was the last thing I remembered.

I could smell dust, i couldn't feel my bed or nor did I awake to my usual "good morning sweetheart" that woke me up every morning, I opened my eyes and light flooded through so much light, light that I had never felt before, or at least remembered this light it wasn't held back by my usual windows or curtains or what other vestiges that held it back from flooding into my room and swallowing me with its awful heat. no, it was everywhere I shook it away and gathered my surroundings. I was lying on what felt like gravel I tried to pull myself up to stand. Standing was something I hadn't done for quite some time. Not since I could remember not since I went into that facility maybe even before. I turned around to grasp what had happened. All around me was shards of debris ranging from pieces of pre Fab concrete the size of a cow, too shards of glass as big as my hand. I was in ground zero, the facility had exploded leaving nothing left but smouldering rocks and jagged pieces of metal and glass. Everything was dead, everything but me, why had I survived an explosion? I composed myself I felt my body, I was still in my hospital gown I looked down at my arm where I had felt something cut me, the cut was gone. Why was I alive? Why wasn't the cut I felt on my arm not there? I convinced myself that this was a dream, a morbid amazingly realistic dream, and being a dream I did what I always wanted too... I went home.

CHAPTER THREE:

Home is where the heart is.

Home… I'd dreamt about going back to it for so long. I'd analysed everything about it, everything I could in that picture to every relevant map piece I had. I started walking down the streets I remembered, as to get a grasp of where I was, seeing things on a map was a little different from living them. It was something far more wondrous. Walking itself was still a relative unknown to me, my muscles were so underdeveloped, they twisted and ached as they grasped as I did, to this foreign concept of walking. Each step in one direction bought with it a number of new things for me to analyse, I saw birds for the first time, and I breathed new air for the first time, felt the way the grass bent and crushed under my feet. I felt leaves for the first time. That was the first time... in a long while. It was so hard to grasp my directions when I was still so entranced in taking in all these new experiences everything was so different to hat previous life I had in that damned hospital. All the things I missed out on experiencing myself were in front of me and Before I knew it I had transgressed three blocks closer to my destination. Which I knew was only past Maple Road, left onto Birch Crescent, right through Glamis Avenue and through the alley way to Rudford Street, where the fourth house wa,s and where hopefully would stand my old home. I travelled in this fashion I started to be weary of the wind around me, and started to really sink into my brain into the events that just transpired. My hospital was gone, the hospital that in All it's two or so stories of my section had just exploded, as far as I could tell not one person there survived the explosion, not one person but me, and my mysterious cut that had just vanished off my arm. What's worse was the feeling I had when it cut, like my body finally doing what it felt like it needed to do all along, if it was a longing. I convinced myself that this was too much to take in. Of course when I got home, my mum would have all the answers. She always had the answers, soon after. There it was… My home. I suppose I'm lucky it's so close the facility. But yet again, I'm sure that this is just evolution of my conditions situations, rather than coincidence itself. There it stood... Home

Home, It stood delapated but homely, a simple brick house. With the usual two windows, a tiled roof and a patio out the front adorned with all the things in the photo. Especially Mums rocking chair that she said she sat in it and read books as she watched the world go by. There was a garden, simple as it was, messy green grass toppled over the path and weeds grew in and over the grass in patches wherever they wished. Beside the house on either sides of it was two of what looked like abandoned factories, It wasn't exactly the nicest place to come home to I didn't care. Anyone but me would probably be disappointed, I however was ecstatic, not only did I make it this far when I wasn't or shouldn't even be able to work. But the walk I made was to Home… to Home! I travelled down the path towards the patio, There were no lights on, there were no signs of life, Just the cold whipping of the wind around me. I got to the door, I knocked there was no response other than the loud thumping of my heart, when I took my hand away I noticed that my knuckles had made dents in the door I looked at my knuckles strangely for a while. This could happen for two reasons, either because of the delapated state of the door, or me simply not knowing my own strength. Never really having used it, how could I? So I trod over to the rocking chair my mother said she always sat in. I tried to feel her presence in it, tried to let it envelope me and keep me calm and warm. Much like my mother herself did, I got nothing from the chair. I leant my head back on the corse weaving of the chair when suddenly to my left, I heard a faint sound to my left.

I looked over to the pot plant; it sparked with life its leaves began to act like tentacles whipping the air. It was almost as if the muscles in my back where trying to do the same, I ignored it and focused on my present hallucination, which I was that sure it was just that; a hallucination. As I grew more comfortable in my hallucination pushing it into the back of my head and slowly relaxing back in the seat when suddenly the leaves split apart to reveal the birth of a new threat something odd and grey. It jumped forward; it opened its eyes. I relaxed. It was just a cat. A cat I remembered somehow in the back of my mind, I wasn't sure of its name but it greeted me as if I was its best friend. It was fluffy and bore a great soothing calm in it presence; a calm I could somehow remember from when I was little. I spied its name on its collar it said, "Kovu". Of course, I remembered we got this cat just before I had to go to hospital. Kovu leapt up onto my lap. He was warm, calm and it felt like this is what I was missing all along. His low purring seemed to resonate with the movement in my blood and I began to fall asleep.

Footsteps...

I heard them and in my mind I knew that I was about to awaken from my dream and hear the usual "good morning sweetheart" that I expected every morning. But it didn't happen. The footsteps sped up, seemingly with a sense of urgency. I could hear them begin to turn towards me. I opened my eyes. I was still in my chair; I was still in this bizarre reality I must have created. The footsteps belonged to my mother, as she ran towards me I noticed that her eyes were bloodshot and red. Her face seemed to resemble that mask of worry I was so used to. Only today she seemed more worried than usual. She spoke no words, only ran up and embraced me harder than I'd ever been embraced in my life. Her warmth and comfort were a joy, considering I was also still freezing and in my pyjama outfit. Kovu soon hopped off my lap and began circling around my legs as my mother squeezed her arms around me harder and harder.

"I...I thought I'd lost you in the fire! Heavens! You can't be real! I must be dreaming. How could you have survived… oh, it doesn't matter my little Navar, you're alive!" She screamed this out with joy as she kept hugging me, harder than I thought she could muster. Now all sorts of questions began to flood into my head. Why was I still alive? None of this made sense. I had to say something, anything.

"Mum…Mum I'm cold" it was all I could muster under the flood of questions my brain was asking me.

She looked at me again with those caring bloodshot, green eyes and began to act confused and urgent again.

"Of course you're cold. Of course you're cold! Silly Sheryl. Come in, come in, you know I still have your room set up. Not that it you would have any use for it now. You're a man now. A baby's room is not fit for a twenty year old. Come in and sit by the fire. Oh Kovu, wait your turn you'll get in soon enough!" The door opened and inside it was like a surreal dream. It was in the back of my mind always, it was home as I always imagined it. Miss mangled clothing and dirty coffee cups, books, cushions and other homely things. I took a seat on a couch that felt more at home, almost as much as I did in my hospital bed. Mum began to light the fire and Kovu took place next to me. In no time the fire roared with a heat I couldn't remember, but it felt much like that horrible night when the facility exploded. Mum hadn't said much, but did offer me a blanket she didn't have much in the way of clothes. Most of them were in the hospital. I put on a pair of black jeans, and a grey, shabby black shirt that was a far longer than my torso. I finally got myself to a mirror; I hadn't looked at myself for quite some time. I never really wanted to. In my mind, I had a picture of myself I never really wanted to let down. The image of a sick frail twenty year old. The mirror revealed a slightly skinny kid with fair skin and angular face with some facial hair that was more like stubble than anything. I had shining green eyes that were framed with black eyebrows. On one side, my hair was fringed with black that trailed down the side of my face, past my chin. The rest of my hair spiked up, almost defying gravity. My mouth kinda angled towards one side, but all in all, I was quite pleased with what I saw. I think I expected some sort of cancer victim. My mother started to stroke down my t-shirt, trying to clean the lint and dirt that was didn't really seem to be there. Kovu trailed under my feet and meowed I heard mum make some snide comment about the cat, who she gave years of devotion and it leaves her for me in the blink of an eye.

in the days that past id never seen my mum happier she looked years younger. Many years younger I even found myself smiling. Id found my home. I think id even found my heart.

CHAPTER FOUR

Beginnings

I laid in my bed id guessed it was morning I was never sure, these foreign surrounding always confused me. mum still came in the last two days with her usual "good morning sweetheart" as she was opening the curtains I think it was half to inspect if I was even there, i think she still thought it was still a dream, as naturally so did i still. Everything in my body seemed to be going quite well. The pain that I had felt before seemed to be numbing I almost felt whatever I thought was the closest to normal. But this surrealistic dream had to end eventually. Sooner or later reality would sink it, sooner or later id have to face it, and as it would seem that day was today. I awoke and through on my new clothes which mum bought me the other day she couldn't by my much other than a plain black hoodie and some plain pants and shoes, which had some emblem on them that said Nike, if really had no idea what these were it didn't matter. I walked into the lounge room and sneaked a look back at Kovu on my bed as he stretched and began to awake. There was a different sense in this house, a sense that I had yet to feel. in the three days I had been here I tried to as I always did to analyse everything I could, there was a foreign presence this presence however was found when I walked into the lounge room there sitting on the couch, taking up more than three quarters of it, with his booming presence was that odd man I saw in the hospital before he still had his hair tied in the neat pony tail, and he wore a brown suit and was trying to grasp one of mums coffee cups as if it was a child's play set. The man heard my footsteps and bounded up nearly spilling the coffee on himself. he grinned at me with a booming smile and strode over to me slapping me on the shoulder as if I was his soccer buddy, I looked up at the massive man and spied at him a quizzical look, he grinned back further, I then looked at my mum she seemed a bit worried, but squeezed in a little smile under it. The mysterious man bent down to my level which seemed to be quite difficult for him considering his considerable stature, I was about six foot one, him I couldn't begin to grasp. He began to speak in his usual odd distinguished dialogue

"well, well, look at YOU my boy, tell me how are you feeling, you look better, much better, some colours returned to you, good! even seems like you got a little muscular and put on a little weight, your far to skinny for your own good boy" i wasn't sure how to gather his accolades so I just smiled rubbed the back of my head sheepishly stared at him and said:

"Ah thanks..." he smiled back and began muttering something under his breath and then looked me up and down again and spied a look back at my mother. he smiled again slapped me on my back again and started to strut towards the middle of the room, where he slapped his hands together in a thundering boom and then he began to speak again this time in a definitive tone

"ms Keelan I believe it is time, I told you this would happen if it was to eventuate, son pack your things your coming with me for a few months there's no need to be worried, you'll be back to your mum within time, but now your going to have to come with me Im afraid" I was outraged I looked at him, my blood began to boil again, it felt like before it felt like it would spike out of my very body

"I am not leaving here!" I shouted at the man but to my surprise he didn't flinch he only looked concerned, as did my mother she walked up to me and put her arm around me and whispered into my ear

"son, this has to happen their taking you to a place where you can be managed, go with the man let them monitor your health if your truly better and they know your going to be stable, then you can come home, you will always have home dear, but this was part of the agreement of the funding" I was still a little shocked how dare people make wheeling and dealing about my very well being it was almost sickening. but I decided to go on the basis my mother provided me and conceded to the giant man, who revealed to me that his name was Holmes, Jackson Holmes I walked into what had become my room and went to pack my things, and realised I had no things I shrugged and walked back out where even one was standing, I relayed them such Holmes just laughed and began in a generous tone

"Everything you need will be provided for you when you get where your going, Im sorry that I cant tell you anymore at the moment but everything is on a need to know basis before you meet the professor." I hugged my mum and she explained that I could call her whenever I wanted. i went to walk out the door, when I heard a loud bellowing that belonged to Kovu, I looked down at him i patted him under the cheek and begrudgingly began to walk out the house when the cat followed me. I looked at Holmes who laughed and told me I could take the cat with me

"Might as well have something that feels like home m'boy seems to like you good and proper too.. Keep him behaved and there'll be no problems, what's the cats name lad?"

Kovu" I explained, he chuckled again and began walking towards the large black car that stood at the end of the pathway to my house, the car looked quite out of place in the shabby surroundings I had called home for the last three days, I couldn't care if I was living in a dumpster, as long as I was living and I was indeed still living I looked back at mum for what I was sure would be the last time in a while, I looked at Kovu and shrugged at her, she had a funny angry look on her face but blew me a kiss all the same . The car took us through winding streets and alley ways in tunnels, down hills, up hills. Kovu was quite well behaved except for the times he jumped up into the window to see where we were. After a while we ended up in what I guessed was an airport. After all that travelling we ended up an airport, I thought that a little strange to myself. I still didn't know where we were going, but I never expected an airport. I had never flown before, never been NEAR an airplane let alone flown. I noticed one on the way to wherever we were going while we were in the airport looking complex, they looked like giant trashcans with wings, and i couldn't even start to grasp the concept of how they flew, only that I never wanted to test it, I prayed that we weren't flying I wished with all my heart that we weren't going in one of those, however I was proved quite wrong when soon after the limousine pulled up to a vacant airport, wherein the only thing standing was a lone sleek black jet that resembled much like car I just droving in. We got out of the car as the wind whipped around us and my fringe flew around my face, Jackson stopped me as I got out and began to get something out of a briefcase

"M'boy Im going to need to place this onto your wrist, to you know monitor your blood rate unless the unforseen should happen. You understand don't you it's not harmful hah! Quite the opposite" he bent down without even asking for an answer and slapped a metallic clasp around my wrist, it had a circle dial on the top of it started to flash an x the side of it bore an insignia or a raven and said "for those god sent" I was rather interested in this piece of metal, even more so how it was supposed to even tell the time let alone the precise measurements of my blood matter, I pushed it out of my brain, and climbed into the imposing black chute they called a plain, holding a trembling Kovu in my arms. I stepped in and saw several seats and noticed other children in the plane! I was so shocked I dropped Kovu! he meowed and found himself the first seat in the line. I stood there silent for quite some time staring at the other people I surveyed, they all appeared to be around the same age as me, one was a girl with long medium black hair and greened rimmed sunglasses she smiled at me and then looked over to the chair where Kovu was sitting

"Wow you got a cat… you must be really special!" I shrugged at the girl, she was somewhat attractive, this made me blush a little, considering I even found anyone attractive when everything that had happened was still running around in my head was a surprise to me.

The other five people all got off their chairs looked at Kovu who didn't really seem to care about the odd amount of attention, the girl then turned her attention to me, she smiled at me and leaned forward a little bit.

"Hi Im Linda this next to me is Leigh" Linda wore a white shirt and black jeans with a leather jacket, the man next to her had a disinterested look about him and waved disinteresdly and focused on whatever he was doing he was wearing a baggy band shirt of some band I had never seen or heard. not that I had seen or heard much. on the seat on right side of line of seats was another boy who wore some sort of logo-ed t shirt an acme blemished face and pale strawberry medium length hair that looked like it wouldn't go anywhere even in you brushed it. Behind him was a kid that had black parted hair striking blue eyes a kind of sneer that seemed oddly friendly he was wearing a black jumper and black jeans, behind him was another boy who wore a hood over his face and was asleep in the corner, I tried to get a closer look at him, I wasn't even sure what sex the person was, they were completely covered in blankets and had a hood over their face

"The kid with the weird hair is Kyle, and the guy behind him is Shane" I was still shocked I couldn't take it all in; I had even less idea of what was going on now than I did before. but at the present all the words I could muster an measly "uhh.." Jackson Holmes came booming in behind me and showed me to my seat next to Kovu where I was still so confused, I imagined my face would of looked as if I had travelled back in time or something I had less time to think about as Jackson Holmes interrupted me; he began to boom a speech over the rattling and horrible noise of the airplane which was quite unsettling.

"ok kids, you're all here for a reason, some of you know why, some of you haven't got the dandiest (he sneaked a look at me) and I don't want any of you talking about it till we reach the school ok, casual talk is fine but leave the important stuff till after you have been briefed by the professor ok?" I gulped and sunk into my chair, hoping the more I sunk myself into it the more answers I got. Sadly it didn't work. the engine boomed into life and we were all told to put on our seatbelts, I could feel my blood burning again, this time with what I imagined was anxiety, I had sweat mopping down my fringe, and Kovu had since been stored in a cat cage for his own good, he still however seemed to be asleep. when the plane finally settled and we were allowed to take of our seat belts, the kid called Kyle moved closer to me and looked me up and down most probably to get a full grasp of the kid who was in front of him. He looked up at me and grinned emphatically

"You look you never been on a plane before... I love planes they go whoosh! I'm sorry I didn't catch your name! What was it again?" the funny haired kid talked a mile per hour and moved almost as fast as his arms did as they helped explain every word that he said… such effort in everything, such energy was so foreign to me to think id only stopped being bed ridden four days ago after an explosion no less! And here I was having this obscene excuse for a teenager trying to talk to me. I glanced at him with a quizzical half disgusted look about me and began to muster my words. I don't think he cared that I hadn't even given my name, nor had I ever been near a plane let alone flown in one. I decided not to tell him the former

" I uhh.. didn't give you my name, my names Navar, Navar Keelan" Kyle looked quite delighted at the fact he learnt my name and glanced around at everyone before taking my hand shaking it before emphatically and throwing himself back into his seat with what looked like inhuman speed, his wrist band flashed a little in response to his effort curiously, and Jackson gave him a fairly dominating glance. Kyle winced and began to smile a little more. From behind the seat Linda appeared and offered me her hand and shoke it. I was a little shocked this was one of the first females id ever really met, that wasn't a nurse or my mother, or one of my stupid cousins girlfriends, I think I may have blushed a little. As did she then from behind the seat Leigh crawled over the seat so I could see his face and shook my hand with a friendly smile.

"Im Leigh barker and this is Linda Jackson" the kid called Shane shuffled his way towards me a little as well and offered his hand which felt very warm to the touch almost too warm as if he just had his hand in the over or something. I shook his hand back and he explained to me his last name was riddle

"where you from stranger?" asked Shane this kinda stunned me a little, I never really expected an question like this, I looked over at Kyle who had his face mashed against the window and was making waving gestures with his hands as if to try and make the jet go faster. Jackson was reading a news paper Linda and Leigh however were also waiting for my answer.

"Um Im from Sydney… err how about you.. Guys" I questioned

"Leigh and I are from Perth" explained Linda as she put her arm around Leigh... it was at this point I gathered they were dating. Figures I further gathered she probably wasn't my type. then again I didn't know what my type was at this point, I just guessed that she wasn't it.

"Im from Adelaide, Christie's downs" said Kyle and he peeled himself away from the jets window and began to bounce subtly on the chair then from the other side of the room a litte away from me was Shane, he pushed himself a little further and turned his glance to me

"Im also from Adelaide.. Not to far from Kyle strange Never met him though which is really strange… meh life happens that way though doesn't it" said Shane as he pondered the curiousness of the situation and returned to his seat. I shrugged at Shane and turned my attention to the lump in the back of the plain that closely resembled a human

"Um… anyone know about that guy?" I pointed to the person that was still asleep in the back of the plane about five rows away from us still sound asleep and unrecognizable.

"Nope, haven't even seen that guy yet, not even sure if it is a guy, could just be a bunch of clothes for all we know.. or maybe that's his pow-" Linda's voice was cut off right there as Jackson's voice cut her off mid sentence as he tried to talk over her

"Im from London, England myself lad, not that you wanted to know or anything" it was at this point that I thought id ask for some answers. We were in a plane and there was less chance he could avoid my questions.

"Mr Holmes… I was uh wondering if you could tell me what is going on I still don't know anything…and Im well, frankly really confused!" he looked firstly at some of the other kids as to silence them if they were thinking of answering the question in any remote sort of way and then began to speak again:

"Please my boy. No more questions till we arrive… however I can tell you ( and he looked at the laptop beside him and paused for a little) ...welcome to Canada lad" I looked out the window. I couldn't see anything particularly striking, not that I knew what I was looking for.

"Wow Canada were sure whooshed here!" explained Kyle as he slammed his face on to the window again to get a better view of the surroundings. Linda and Leigh just shrugged at each other and sunk in their seats a little to get a bit more comfortable. I shifted my gaze to Shane who was tapping his watch a little and I thought I even noticed some heat lines sinking off it and then shrugged it off… heat lines? Impossible, so I turned my attention back on to Jackson

"Canada sir? How is that even possible we were in Sydney no longer than four hours ago or so" it was true, and this was just another pecurality of the stupid day, that had so many questions, and little to no answers.

"Well lad, the answer would be quite simple that your not in no ordinary jet are you" it was fairly obvious that I wasn't, I thought about asking some but, but it was fairly obvious I wasn't going to get any more answers out of Jackson Holmes, so sunk more into my seat and began toiling over the events that had just transpired recalling everything in my head, trying to piece my memories together as if they were a puzzle, as if solving the puzzle would give me my answers.

CHAPTER FIVE

Revelations

"Boys and girls welcome to the Canadian Rockies!" explained a booming Jackson Holmes as he pounded himself off the jet and into the sub-par space that served as an airport lobby. I looked around me. the sun was shining violently, hmm I thought to myself… the sun I still hadn't got used to the sun still admittingly I still wasn't used too much of anything of this born-again life Im in, but the sun was always there I suppose it was one of my new constants I found that I needed to give myself constants more and more to keep myself at least slightly sane, I needed something to rely on something to keep myself grounded. The sun shone upon the five of us I was standing slackly looking towards the front of the lobby observing my other companions, Kyle was running around the plane examining its mechanics as if to work out its secret. Shane was looking disinterested and was staring off somewhere towards the massive ice capped cliffs that fringed the horizon. Linda and Leigh were grabbing some of their baggage off the planes trolley and I finally noticed the other kid there he was leaning against the plane soaked in shadow with his hoodie pulled tight over his face I could only notice his red eyes shining through the enveloping darkness that was his face. I couldn't quite pick it, but I couldn't shake the feel that kid was familiar to me somehow As familiar to me as anything could be too me at this point. I really didn't find anything remotely familiar about anything where we were. This wasn't a hospital bed. And my blood wasn't waging a war with my body and winning. That's what was familiar, this was foreign, and so far foreign was good. Here there were people my age that weren't help staff or admirers or med students, people who could be my friends, hmmf friends now there's a foreign concept I thought to myself, but I had less time to ponder the concept as we were shuffled onto a car that pulled up just suddenly, I guess I hadn't noticed it because I was still too lost in my thoughts, Jackson Holmes ferreted us all in like sheep. I looked around one last time at that odd airport and got into the car.

"Not too long now before you get your answers there kids. and believe me your probably gonna like what you hear!" this was about one of the happiest I had ever seen Jackson Holmes I don't think Jackson liked keeping secrets as much as we liked not knowing them, well me anyway, this showed a kind of human side of him that opened up a little more emotion and a little less formative scholar I decided at this point so far, Jackson Holmes was alright.

The car cruised along at a steady pace through winding turns and twists. As the elevation got higher and higher I tried to have a look at the view but I couldent catch much or anything mostly because if was in the middle of Shane whose hair covered much of the side of his face he spent most of his time clicking his fingers together with hard intent. Kyle was again glued to the side of the limo yelling each time we travelled down a steep decent or gathered speed. I wasn't quite sure, but I think that this Kyle kid may get on my nerves soon. Linda didn't say much as she was asleep on Leigh's shoulder and Leigh appeared to be listening to some sort of music player. I assumed it was this "slipknot" band I had never heard of other than the fact that it was embalmed on his t shirt. Leigh noticed me looking at his t-shirt and gave me a slight nod and smile soon after returning to closing his eyes and concentrating on his music. The mystery traveller was still much the same as he was in the plane. I still couldent see much about him and he was still asleep with his hood drawn over his face. After a while the car suddenly stopped I noticed around the limo a procession of the same marked cars around us suddenly our wrist bands blinked a couple of times and flashed in red letters "welcome" I didn't get it, so I decided to concentrate more on what was around me. The car moved a little more forward a couple more times slowly which seemed to infuriate Kyle the most, who often cursed to go push the car himself if it didn't go any faster. Then About five minutes later the car finally stopped we were told to get out and so we all obediently obeyed. After we did we were faced with large iron wrought gates which were adorned with fancy iron work that resembled a crude but intricate raven, lion and a snake. Jackson Holmes came to the Gates and opened it for us all. It wasn't just the people in my limo; there were hundreds of kids around me, all waiting to get past the gates as well. Finally Jackson Holmes boomed as to speak over the noise, and clasped his huge hands around the gates.

"Welcome to THE INSTIUITE my friends! Your stuff will of course be delivered to your dormitories if you can now follow the directions indicated on your wrist bands in will lead you into the grand hall where many of your questions will be answered. And soon after the red x, that had once flashed welcome now glowed with a flashing arrow, the arrow indicated we travel forward. I left with a pack with my fellow travellers and eventually we found our way into a giant hall, we passed a mish-mash of techno looking hi tech buildings and a lot of differently placed ovals full of free space and nature, and not to mention the myriad of things I couldent even bother to ponder. I was almost in out of my head I couldent imagine this ever happening in my life. All i could gather based on my own experiences was that perhaps this was some sort of school for terminally ill children like myself. But that was again beyond my grasp and was just a guess. I noticed to myself that I was losing constants again, everything kept changing in a pace I couldent keep up, with, this world was far more foreign than anything I had even known, here I was nested in the high altitude somewhere in what I guessed was the Canadian Rockies in some sophisticated school for what I gathered was terminally ill children. What I couldn't question at this point was that if this were all for the terminally ill why was it worth it to gather all us here in the Canadian Rockies. Surely the travel itself could have killed some of us anyway. But I was thinking pessimistically as I scrutinized the hell out of my new surroundings I took some time to think of the alternative. Of me lying there in my hospital bed counting the steps a nurse made towards my room, or the awful thumps of that annoying boy in the room next to me. I took a deep breath and I think I even managed a smile as I took in the surroundings of the great hall.

The great hall itself was a room probably large enough to fit in a small jet, it was filled with the hustle and bustle of children chatting and murmuring among themselves. Next to me were Kyle and Shane and too Shane's left was Linda and Leigh, the hooded kid I couldn't see anywhere. He probably disappeared into the darkness like he looked like he wanted to. And with a great clamour everything went silent I soon found out why, there on top of a stage which had a large table adorned many seats, and a speaking post stood a frail man with a quite composed and dominating presence despite his obvious stature, he had a long grey moustache which twirled at the ends, and wore small round glasses wish slick pushed black silver hair. He wore a grey suit with a white coat over it. He began to speak and the entire room went quiet even our wrist bands changed into an exclamation logo too which I chuckled a little I turned my attention up the white coated man as did everyone else in the room

"Boys and girls welcome… welcome ho hoo to THE INSTIUITE! You can all simply call me "the professor" now Im sure many of you have questions, and are indeed dying for answers which I will naturally try and answer for you right now, and naturally I will do my hardest to do and again Im losing track… I usually do ho hoo. ok so why are you here you may ask?, my children you are here because you are all special, all of here, and this may come as a shock to you, maybe not so much of a shock to some of you. You are all born with special powers, all of you, and as previously said this may come as a complete shock to some of you, but make no mistake you would not be in the institute for the gifted if you did not possess some sort of power. Now for some of you powers may be laying dormant and some may be quite easily recognisable to some of you as part of your daily life. This here is the institute, the institute is a place where we will nurture your beautiful gifts and help them into there full fruition. And Im sure your thinking to yourself that Im a madman, but don't let that get in the way of your judgement (a joke only the coated man seemed to laugh at) but it is indeed true, even I have my own powers, what they are I shall leave as a secret. But why you may ask me is this oddity in science occurred, first let me explain how your body does, or in some cases will do the amazing things it will. It is because you here are all born with a gene known as "the mutant gene", this gene adapts our genetics and moulds to our lifestyle and what we need the most in simple and odd way however many cases have been recorded of completely random evolutions, but for now, think of it like if a man with a mutant gene was cold, he would eventually obtain the power to control heat, or make it less cold for him, however my assumption is that given a life with no immediate needs, this is where we experience completely random evolutions. However we shall stick with what we know; for instance a simple explanation, we are the next step in humanity this gene is natures idea to kick start evolution by letting our situations determine our evolution, naturally nature is selective, so selective that there are very few of us special people if you relate us to the sheer scale of humanity, but I am getting on and blabbering again in my old age. upon my finishing this speech you will be placed in Faction groups, according to the style of your powers mysterious and more unknown powers will be going to raven, powerful and upfront powers will be sorted to lion Faction, and defensive and supportive powers will be sorted into snake house please check your wrist watches now." I couldent take any of it in. not one bit, special… me? I could barely move five days ago and here I am at some school for the gifted where they expect to nurture and control my abilities, what abilities? The ability to stay in bed 24hours! I was so shocked I almost fainted I hardly noticing Kyle grabbing my hand to take a look at my wristband

"Raven Faction too! Wow maybe we can be in the same dorm wouldn't that be awesome!" I looked around at everybody around me all there wristbands all flashed a raven logo curious that we all managed to be placed in this "raven faction". I assumed this to be a good thing however; I wondered to myself could I maybe call these people my friends. out of all of us Shane seemed the happiest, his teeth were curved into a smile and he showed some of his unusually spiked k9's he began to click his hands rampantly as if trying to activate what I gathered now what I finally realised he was doing the whole car ride here he was tying to use his power. I started toiling in my mind what would happen when they figured out they had made a mistake; I tried not to think about it I thought to myself that It was only a matter of time id realise this was all a dream and I would wake up back in my hospital bed. Suddenly our wrist watches began to show words they read as such:

"_please do not try your powers they have been deactivated for the moment being until futher notice, and will be monitored constantly for misuse, you cannot use your powers against another student, and you never will be able to as long as you where this wristband, which should be noted can only be taken off by the professor himself, in the meantime please follow the following coordinates to your assigned dormitories" _

And after I had read this the display flickered to life with a yet again different display (what the hell are these things anyway) It showed arrows on a small mini map. We all followed it to our new dormitories which was adorned black and purple yet still with homely feel I noticed as I walked past a room that had a vast open fire and a luge luminous bubble on the roof (letting in terrible amounts of sunlight) That when I got to what was obviously supposed to be my room, There were six beds and on one of them was my only belongings that is, Kovu. My only belonging at this point who was asleep on the bed that and a suit case full of two socks and a spare shirt. I decided I needed to sleep and that's exactly what I did. No matter what time it was I didn't care, my brain was in a sensory overload, and I couldn't take anything more new. I think everybody else around me decided to do the same.

CHAPTER SIX

They call her "angel"

Voices.

I heard a gentle voice of a woman, it was almost angelic, it was probably a new nurse but I felt that I could of been lost in her melodious tone of voice for the rest of my life.

"No way you got a cat!... wow you must be really special if you got to bring a pet" I awoke. Again I naturally expected to see my usual salmon pink curtains of the hospital, with their usual amount of creases that I counted every morning, and awaited the chance to check up on my usual amounts of constants that I always imagined kept me sane. However what I woke up to was something I never imagined it was better. The sun streaked in from four windows around the six beds in the dormitory where I laying. This was the seventh time I had awoken from this supposed dream of mine and it had still been "real" I just then decided to upgrade myself to the fact that I was probably in a coma but nevertheless decide to enjoy it regardless. What i awoke to find was a girl, a girl with long flowing blonde platinum hair that was straight, but curled at all the right places, Her eyes were a beautiful angelic blue that shone with happiness, joy and humility like id never seen. And her lips, oh her lips! They puckered into a beautiful cascade of red lipstick. She seemed smaller than me, not by much maybe up to my forehead. She wore a low-cut blue singlet that had a wide open back and a low-cut front with white track pants trailing down what seemed to be her perfect legs. She was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I tried to muster something to say, anything; but the girl had a way of sucking all the more poignant words all I could muster was:

"is…is this a dream?" the words spat out of my mouth as it was vomit, I almost felt like wanting to hit myself but decided to just shut up and not make myself look more stupid than I probably already did. I heard some slight quiet patronising chuckles from the people around me. The girl looked up from patting Kovu, who seemed to be quite pleased with himself and rolled over to his belly. She looked at me and stood up. I now thought to myself that i felt a little stupid still laying into bed. She got up walked towards me closer to the front of the bed where I was, and said:

"Nope Im all real… sorry to disappoint you but hey I like your cat… what's his/her name?" I was dumbfounded I looked around the room a couple of times trying to distract myself so I could answer the question I even wondered to myself if maybe this girls power was to drain speech from people but before I could think more about it I had to muster up words, any would do, and I hit myself in my mind a couple of times. I looked over at Kovu who seemed to be quite distressed by the fact that he was no longer the centre of attention; finally the words came to me

"I uh oh his name is Kovu!" she giggled a little again and started to pace around my bed my eyes wouldn't let me not look at her.

"I can't believe you were allowed to bring pets! I had a dog at home could rubbles and i wasn't allowed to bring him! Seriously you must be really special if you were allowed to bring a pet. Oh…hey what's your name?" I was still so stunned that she was talking to me I couldn't really muster much than basic conversation and dribble, I was attacking myself in my mind trying to strike up something other than the messed up blabber that was coming out of my mouth.

"Oh uh um… Im sorry about that, your dog that is… oh! My names Navar…but call me nav!" I had decided that if I was to have a new life it needed a new name. Least a nickname I've never really had a nickname before; I got called nav a few times at the facility by some of the more affectionate staff and it seemed rather suiting for my new life

"Oh ok well… nav! hopefully I'le see you round." she began to walk off as something in my heart sank I laughed to myself in my head of the irony of it. My heart; that festering pump that used to contract and flow poison around my body but here it was giving me this brand new sensation of my heart falling down a black abyss, this was such an odd feeling that I was getting and I was all because of this girl, this girl that was now walking away. I had do something, say something to make her not walk out of my life, this time I actually managed something more poignant than I could usually muster;

"I uh… didn't catch your name?" she looked back and cocked her head over as she giggled

"Im nikki, but everyone calls me angel" and with that she walked out of the room and out of my life for now, I figured she must be in one of the six rooms in our dorm Because I spotted a picture of a dog on a made bed in the corner I gathered must of been "Rubbles". From then I managed to snap myself out of my trance eventually. I looked around and tried to get a better grasp of this actual room I was going to be calling home for however long it was we were going to be here, it was a simple black room, with sex beds and simple bedside tables where we could place our belongings, and we had black bed doonas which had a purple outlined raven on them on one wing a feather was missing I imagined this was quite odd, when I snapped out of my thoughts I was distracted by some sounds coming from one of the beds that everyone was crowding around. It was Shane's he was explaining something with an amazing amount of delight;

"Im gonna be the first person here to master their powers just you see! I totally got it down pact already!" said Shane with some amount of superiority, he was quite determined and believed his statement to be true in every sense of the word.

"Do it again! Do it again! That was so awesome " said Kyle, and soon after Shane noticed that I had joined his spectators as well, he smiled at me, winked and clicked his fingers suddenly his hand to burst with the noise of a roaring fire, and there in plane sight was a hand completely enveloped with blue flame! I couldn't believe he was actually alight with blue flame! i was completely stunned, I couldn't believe myself it began to crawl along and up his arm as if he, himself was actually alight, I would of suspected Shane to be worried but all he was doing was laughing he suddenly stopped laughing as the flames crept a little past his upper wrist. he then closed his palm and the flames that were once burning stationary right on his hand ceased as if they were never there. I couldn't believe myself. so far everything I kept seeing was so beyond my wildest imaginations. When everyone stopped looking at Shane they too had all noticed that I got up from my entrancement with angel, they all looked at me up and down smiling serenely and it was Leigh that spoke first.

"Hey... Nav (he winked when he said that)…you know what you can do yet?" I kinda blushed a little, I knew I couldn't do anything I knew my whole being here (if it was even real) was a complete mistake. So far my biggest ability was walking to my house and mysteriously surviving an explosion. I decided to say nothing and figured I was better off trying to bluff my way out if it. I didn't really feel like being embarrassed this early thought I could savour these happy moments a bit longer, just a bit longer till they all found me to be the fraud I was.

"I uh err...no...Um... What can you do!?" it was all I could really muster, I hoped that it would get the subject of me and onto Leigh he smiled at me and shrugged, Linda leant forward between us a spoke in a very informative tone of voice;

"Shane's one of the first people to even know what his power is, let alone master it, I personally have no idea what their on about this whole power thing just seems to outrageous to me... I think Leigh said he sometimes feels stronger than he should be but he doesn't think that is his power, how could it be, the power to sometimes feel stronger? With Kyle we got no idea, but it better be something exhausting that kid would drain batteries, I swear ... and I think that, that angel girl seemed to know what her powers was, but she left before we could ask her anything more about it. The only one left is that kid we haven't seen since the car ride here... you know the dark and mysterious one, formless lump of blankets, that one!" I nodded to Linda and started examining my own hands, I tried to think to myself what they could possibly be on about? Powers? When suddenly our wrist watches flashed and beeped, it had some text written on it, much like before this time it read:

_first lesson "power exploration at classroom 715 please report there in fifteen minutes... this wrist watch will give you your directions" _then it began to count down time and also said tap side for directions, everyone else was ready and I was more than happy to follow the crowd for now. I didn't have any other clothes anyway so I guessed I was ready too. We began to walk down the stairs and out into the hallway, traversing some sprawling staircases and hallways while we were following the directions on our wristbands I noticed many students on our walk to our destination, I half suspected to myself that I was looking for angel again. I looked down to the wristbands we were all told to wear, the directions had gone and each watch in standby mode there was something different, there was a large emblem that resembled the insignia of the house we were all designated to other than the x that was originally there.

the "classroom 715" was more like a small gym than a classroom, there were several more people inside. There was some girls from snake house (I could tell by the snake insignia on there wristbands) who were all talking to what I was pleased to see was angel, she smiled at me and waved at me and the other people that were in Raven faction, two others came in soon after and introduced themselves, one was a tall red-haired boy that looked a little fair skinned than he should be, he seemed to have an odd aura of vanity despite the obviousities of him, he introduced himself as Kane, and other was a rather lanky mouse haired kid named josh, the girls didn't bother too introduce themselves, it was good anyway because I didn't think I could really handle it at the moment. girls were a totally new thing for me and I just didn't think I was ready to explore the diplomacy and confusion that they came with . Kane, josh and one of the snake girls went over to Shane who was more than glad to show off his powers to another impressed crowd, they all clapped and began to pound him with questions about his power. it wasn't long until the door bellowed open and in came a familiar face, he looked around and beemed at all of us and clapped his giant hands on his clammy skin. The familiar face was Jackson Holmes.

"Welcome, welcome students… you here are all from the oceanic region and as such have been grouped in my class accordingly, Ile have you stand all in a circle near me please students on the double!" I almost chuckled when I looked down to see our wrist watches repeat _"stand in a circle around administrator"_ he counted heads made a comment about one missing and began to talk again;

"welcome all of you to power exploration, in this class you'll get to know and test your powers, I control an inhibitor that can control or neutralize your powers if need be so please don't feel you need to hold anything back ( I head Shane scoff a little as he nudged me in the ribs) now if I can go round the room id like you to state your name and your power please. It started with the Asian girl that introduced herself to Shane when he was showing people his power; she was fairly unsure of her ability but she could make loud booms when she clapped her hands, which I thought was rather impressive anyway

"Now please remember most of your powers at this point will be in their foetal state and only beginning to form, If it all. Don't be embarrassed about your lack of control or even evidence of power. And Julie I'm sure that clap, will be a powerful sonic boom with a little more training" she grinned and held her chin a little higher than she did before and got back into the formation of the circle. The girl next to her had long orange hair she could turn into what appeared to be whips or even tentacles, the tall orange haired kid with the odd sense of vanity; Kane could go invisible and hover a bit, the kid next to him josh seemed to be able to explode when he said "kblah!" but he couldn't control it very well and ended up exploding off one of his fingers which made everyone laugh, curiously the finger grew straight back, but the whole exercise seemed to tire him out a fair bit. Next to him, was angel she explained her name stepped into the middle of the ring and glanced at her back, her perfect back. she smiled a little and then from where her perfectly formed back once was, grew glorious beautiful plumage of white feathers that formed awesome angel wings, I gawked I couldn't believe myself, it was so stunning, this girl standing there with beautiful angelic wings, she looked even more angelic that usual, of course i thought to myself as I recalled to myself "they call me angel!" Angel hovered in the air a little, feathering the air with her beautiful wings until Mr Holmes said that was enough. Most of the other students were in much as awe as I was, she retracted her wings when she landed on the ground and gave me a wink at me as to say "I told you so" and moved back into formation. Next up was Shane he stated his name and jumped into the ring with great enthusiasm; he clicked both his fingers landing in a straight line across his shoulders and arms

"ooh baby lets get started!" he said with quite a superior undertone to his voice. his hands flicked into flame again and crawled up his arms he tried to concentrate more and the flames in his hand began trailing in a fierce blue fireball towards the roof, all yet again everyone seemed to be quite awestruck. Mr Holmes called for enough but Shane didn't listen he just tried to make his flames go higher concentrating on his flames more than the teacher. Mr Holmes yelled enough again and tapped the top of his watch, suddenly it beeped he looked over to Shane, Shane's watched beeped in response and then oddly Shane's powers muted there and then. He looked quite disdain and looked angrily over to Mr Holmes

"I said enough boy, I told you I hand inhibitors to stop your powers working, and you refused to listen to me and as such your powers were deactivated however I will call that one and accident but next time you'll have a power time out" this seem to Shane to be the worst possible punishment he could think of, he quickly jumped back into line. And next out stepped Kyle into the circle he had a very cheesy grin across his face and he flashed his white teeth more than once, as per usual his hair defied all sense of neatness, he looked up to Mr Holmes who gave him a nod Kyle looked at the ground for a little bit, as if trying to figure out exactly what his power was as if he could find the answer inside himself, after a while, completely out of the blue he proclaimed "whoosh!" and began speeding around the perimeter of the circle it was becoming hard to stand still Kyle was creating quite a powerful slip stream. I guessed to myself that I half expected this sort of power from Kyle, he never stands still I wondered if he even slept. But before long he was told that was "enough" by Mr Holmes and Kyle had to step back in line.

Next up was Leigh, who looked quite dispirited that his name had been chosen,

"No need to be shy lad step up on in" Leigh begrudgingly stepped into the middle of the circle he winced a little and started to speak

"Uh... sir I don't think I have any powers I mean I don't know what they are I've never used them" Mr Holmes chuckled a bit and checked his wristwatch. And then said

"Have you any inclination of the Possibility of what it could be young man?" he said staring into Leigh with an amount of empathy I found quite compassionate. Leigh looked back after staring at the ground for a while.

"Sometimes, I feel um…like stronger than I should be" explained Leigh. This delighted Mr Holmes quite a lot, he looked at Leigh as he set out to explain

"the wristwatches are here to help son, I want you to think of what it felt like, to feel like that and hold on to that emotion, the wristwatch should be able to help you along past that wondrous pieces of machinery these " Leigh grinned a little, he seemed a little relieved he looked to the ground and started concentrating, moments later his wristwatch beeped and his hands began to change into claws he began to grow taller and into more of a looming stature and even his feet began to grow brown and bear like unfortunately however he couldn't sustain it for long. And he soon resumed back to himself a lot more tired than he was before he started.

"its ok boy, it works different for all us, you did a fine job, looks like you have your self the beginnings of a fine transformation form there, by golly a transformer we haven't seen one of them for years... you should be quite proud of yourself never know boy it could even be more, only time will tell however" and Leigh was quite pleased with himself he strutted back into line like a peacock.

Next up was Linda for her It happened much the same as Leigh, however it turned out that she could move things with her mind however albeit at this point only small rocks and a used drink bottle she picked up in one of the bleachers, which in my mind was still rather impressive. I was so distracted by the marvels in front of me that I forgot the looming sentence that was coming up, The sentence when I would finally be seen as the fraud I was. Mr Holmes gestured me up towards the middle of the circle I did so with my head down and my feet chuffing the ground, I almost wished I could return back to my hospital bed and save myself the embarrassment. But I was solved the pain of embarrassment as suddenly the doors jumped open, smacking against their latches, within the frames of the door bore a kid about my height he wore a tall black Mohawk, dark brown eyes that almost looked black, and that same disgusting scowl he always wore back in the hospital. It was Sinder king, the Simkin, but what could he possibly be doing here, why didn't he die in the explosion, it made absolutely no sense. The Simkin laughed cruelly for a matter of minutes to make sure everyone was looking at him, he strutted towards everybody and began to explain a-matter-of-factly, his cruel eyes darting around the room anxiously

"You idiots think this kid has a Power...I tell you…That professor has gone of his cracker square off it if he thinks I mean c'mon I knew this kid back in the oh never mind, if you think this kid has a power, any sort of power your all completely insane, the only thing this kid has is a bad taste of clothing sense, but you know what your right he is special, like retard special!" I couldn't believe it, I knew I already hated this kid, but here he was insulting me, in front of everybody who until this point probably thought I was perfectly normal I was starting to get infuriated, my blood was boiling again it started to be agonising again, it was starting to feel like before I held my stomach in a little because I was feeling a little sick. My mind was playing flashes of that evil bug eyed creature with huge teeth that haunted my dreams. But before i had time to act, before I had time to stop him, before any of us had time to act the Simkin broke a spike of his Mohawk which resonated with a metal clang. His hair spike regrew back instantly shimmering an odd metallic shine before returning back to its normal black spike. The Simkin flung the metal spike towards me with deadly accuracy I had little time to do anything, the spike managed to cut me in the arm as I was trying desperatly to dodge the incoming spike. it was a deep gash, but it didn't hurt quite the opposite… I could feel my boiling and blood flowing outside my body, suddenly I had a wondrous feeling as if millions of little eyes were flowing out my arm... eyes that wanted to do my every whim and command. My hand began to cover with blood but it wasn't dripping to the floor blood, rather this blood was covering my arm like a crude glove I could feel my body concentrating shimmering for a while I looked around at everybody with there shocked faces first the girl with the whip hair, then Leigh, then Kyle, then too the Simkin. Suddenly something felt different, I struck my arm out towards the Simkin with vicious intent and out my arms came several bladed tentacles, the whipped towards him slicing the air as they travelled towards him, they grasped him around the body I instinctively lifted him towards the roof, something was inside me giving me an insight to what I should do, like some odd presence inside me… I could feel immeasurable amount of power flowing through me, through what I guessed was my blood. It was like it was always supposed to be free, like all this time it wasn't trying to kill my body, simply trying to get out, so it could achieve this, this wondrous feeling I could feel as I was holding a completely shocked Simkin metes high in the air. Before I knew it much of my body was covered in this crude costume of blood, id stopped using my legs I was being supported by tentacles sprawling from my feet and back and I tried to choke the Simkin even more… then I looked round I was distracted as half my face was being enveloped by this crude blood costume and noticed Mr Holmes spin his finger around the rim of the watch and tap it violently, tap it again. And then in frustration thump it with his fist. All I could feel soon after was my body lurch and retract this wonderful feeling inside me. And the last thing I saw was beautiful angel wings fly towards me as they caught me in mid air and my last thought was "angel… they call her angel"

CHAPTER SEVEN

Blood

Whispers

Again; it's always whispers, but this time it was different this time I wasn't expecting there to be doctors consulting my mother with the next batch of bad news. Ok that's what I was expecting, but not what I was hoping, to a surprise to me I was hoping to open my eyes and still be in that odd institute where I had friends, and I could move, and run and do all the things people should be allowed to do. But I was so often cruelly denied. I was slowly coming too and I had a new hope as my eyes were starting to flutter with a full amount of light, I hoped that on the end of my bed would be angel, beautiful angel.

I opened my eyes and came too slowly, and I guessed everybody else had noticed that I had started coming to as well because I could feel the vibrations of footsteps against a hard floor from this I had to guess that I wasn't in bed no it was more likely a floor. Finally got a view of my surroundings, I was still in the gym everyone around me was staring in awe, angel was bent down at the end of my feet and looked at me and smiled she tapped me on my shin as if it say "its all ok" I went to say thanks but all that came out was a cough, I Didn't get much more time to focus on her Because an immense shadow began to loom over me, I looked up, it was the kind face of Mr Holmes; he smiled at me and eyed me up and down and cleared he throat to speak;

"Good heavens boy, how are you? Can you stand? Im believe Im going to need you to see the professor! He did want to see you anyway "I slowly felt my legs returning to me and kicked one of them a little into the air just to see if they still worked, which scared angel a little after that she decided to stand up and return to her friends. I slowly sat up and pushed myself to my feet, it didn't hurt at all, actually I even felt as if I was stronger, my muscles seemed more defined I felt like a new man, I felt like man! Not just a boy, but a man! It was at this point that I began to notice everyone crowded around me. I started to take in a deeper context to what was really going on I was used to this kind of attention of course, id had students from different universities come in and come out all the time, but this was different it wasn't the kind of attention that came with pity. This was more awe and wonderment, and I liked it. I figured to myself that it was best time to say something to clear the air and the awkwardness of the situation; I came to only one logical question.

"Um… what happened?" everyone kind of laughed a little, it was Kyle who was first to answer

"What happened!? What happened!? YOU happened nav, you got all tentacled and strong and WHOOSH! And then that other kid with the Mohawk was all like AHH! And stuff, and then we were wall like "whoa!" and stuff and then, and then-" and before he could finish Mr Holmes interjected and jumped in front of him

"That's quite enough out of you Mr Hoffricter Im afraid you're going to have to see the professor me boy, on you go the directions will be on your watch display. No dawdling on you goes scoot!" and sure enough my watch beemed the instructions "_go see the professor" _and began to flash directions again. I really didn't have time to do anything but follow the directions of the display, behind me in my wake were people were clapping their hands and slapping me on the back, when I got closer to the door I heard clamour and managed to ascertain some of the sentences of what they were saying

"Did you see that-?"

"He was all like wow and stuff"

"That was one of the coolest thing I have ever seen!"

And soon after the voices faded into a melt of noise and clamour I looked down at my watch, the professors quarters was a little bit away from here so I started to walk a little slower on the way i past some of the other classrooms and even spied in a couple of them I noticed one kid who could breathe fire and a girl two classrooms over that could shoot laser beams from her hands. Now they were cool powers, not like mine, whatever the hell that was that just happened, hah! The power to bleed over myself I thought to myself. That's not a power that's one of those Emo's they have on TV. It was at this point that I started to wonder why exactly I was going to see the professor I guessed I was most probably in trouble. I did almost kill that kid, I thought so anyway well at least I don't think I did I really had no idea because I blanked out, last thin I remember was holding The Simkin in mid air and constricting him with some weird tentacles, and then Mr Jackson thumping hard on his wristwatch, next I knew I had just woken up from blanking out. My stomach began to turn over itself, I felt like I was about to vomit I had never been in trouble before I always really had no choice to do anything but what the doctors told me too, I noticed my paces were starting to slow down even more and i was starting to sweat a little bit. I guessed I was scared but being scared was a normal feeling to me, I was always scared that in the hospital the next day I wouldn't wake up, and I would never hear that beautiful voice say

"Good morning sweetheart" but I really couldn't focus on the past at this point so I shrugged it off. What was important at this point was the present and what was about to happen, and before I knew it I had made it to the professor's quarters, it was past five classrooms, and up an extensive amount of steps which to be honest were a little tiring. I walked up to the door and knocked very quietly hoping he wouldn't hear and that maybe I could just go back to class and lie and say that I saw him and nothing happened. But that of course was merely a hopeful delusion that quickly went out of the window because an echo from somewhere in the room a voice bellowed:

"Come in child" I gulped a mouthful of air and anxiously stepped into the room, the room itself was amazing, it was mostly a glass bubble poised upon a high tower it had a couple of counters with odd amounts of beakers and oddly coloured fluids bubbling and steaming, to the left was a computer with a giant screen that flashed up a myriad of colours and numbers and other amounts of uninteresting gibberish. From the window billowed a white coat and the professor turned around to face me he smiled and pushed his small round spectacles closer to his face he gestured to the other side of the room where a desk stood, around it fringed an amazing amounts of different books and texts. I smiled to myself this room was like one third library, one third science lab and one third computer room. I supposed it went to say the professor must be quite a learned man; he trudged over to the desk and placed himself in the large dominating leather seat it was red and looked quite comfortable, the seat I placed myself was a smaller basic seat, which seemed to be placed there simply for the appearance. the professor shuffled around in his seat for a little, and cleared some stuff off his desk as to get a better view of me I tried my best not too look directly at him I really didn't want to see the disappointment (or more than likely anger) on his face eventually the professor began to talk as to break the uncomfortable silence

"Well my dear Navar how are you feeling hmm?" he asked as he sized me up and down

"I um… err Im fine sir? Even probably better... I uh feel great" it was at this point I remembered I had been cut I looked at my arm and it was nowhere to be seen, my arm was completely unscathed if not a little more muscular than it was before. I heard the professor clear his throat a little and I up looked at him puzzled

"Um, my cut it's gone! It was there, like just there! I mean err am I in trouble?" this revelation just dawned on me again I still wasn't sure what was going to happen to me. The professor chuckled a little and then pushed his glasses up and looked at me with a high amount of fascination

"Yes… yes your cut is gone, admittingly I expected as much … Quite remarkable that and no, no you're not in trouble I am well aware to that fact that you were indeed provoked. No I brought you here more to have a look at you myself, personally… and naturally ho hoo to explain something to you of course" this surprised me a little, I wasn't exactly ready not to be not punished, and even less ready to get some answers, I mean wasn't even sure there were questions, let alone answers. I really couldn't think of anything poignant to say so i just vomited something out as i sometimes unwillingly seem to do

"Um…err answers?" the professor chuckled again

"Well yes its not every time a terminally ill patient survives an explosion treks to his mothers house and makes an overseas trip now is it?" I was stunned. Truly stunned so stunned I nearly fell off my chair, I steadied myself and tried to will myself to ask myself some more questions, I needed more light shed on the odd history of me making it here, and perhaps he had such answers

"you... you knew about that!?" the professor screwed up his face a little as to concentrate on me even more

"of course I knew about it my boy who did you think was the person that provided all that wonderful funding?" strange that I hadn't really thought about it for a while, or even at all I generally had a rule not to over analyse the good things in my life, but I suppose it did make sense. Mr Holmes did come visit me that once at the hospital and he was also the one that brought me here I wondered to myself why I had never really put two and two together until now. It was starting to annoy me that everything that came out of this be speckled man raised so many more questions than he gave answers. I really couldn't think of anything to say, there was already to many questions running around my head anyway, as per usual I reserved myself to one of my constants That being my usual completely un-poignant word dribble

"Why... why did you fund me? I err don't get it" the professor leant back a little in his chair and continued

"I suppose my boy you want ALL the answers, young kids like you always want all the answers, never enough patience with you lot. But I suppose that comes with the age. Ok my boy simply put, your special… more special than most of those people here perhaps the answer is simply… yes but let me explain… you know about the mutant gene I was explaining to everybody in the hall a couple of days back?" mutant gene? Even that was a little stranger to me than most of this linking me to some "mutant gene" seemed like linking an ant to a million dollar business, but I was listening to the speech and I did know what a mutant gene was, I nodded to the professor and answered:

"Yeah ok mutant gene, but are you sure you haven't made some sort of mistake?" the professor chuckled again, he leant forward a little more and his face was also a little more serious than before

"Well that's why you're special Navar we weren't at first we weren't exactly sure if you did have the mutant gene, we knew you were special, you were such a rare case of blood disease. However the problem was we really couldn't test you because naturally your blood couldn't leave your body. So we decided to monitor you, for some sort of sign that would indicate wether you were indeed a candidate for the institute or not however after that… unfortunate accident that we knew that you were indeed a candidate, however we still weren't sure what anomaly you posses, naturally coz we couldn't test your blood however after that incident earlier today it was indicated to me what you exactly posses because we got a sample from your wristwatch. So I figured to myself that you might want me to explain some of this to you, so you can gather a larger grasp on your abilities, and your unusual situation you posses" so I really did have abilities? this was a little too much to grasp again I knew I had something because of what happened earlier, but I still had no Idea what that "something" was, I just kinda nodded to him I wanted more answers and didn't want him to be stalled further

"Ok um… abilities?" I questioned, leaving the professor more of a chance to continue his story

"Ok well you my son are an anomaly indeed, you don't exactly possess the mutant gene, however you possess, millions of them, possibly billons your blood itself is an changing and adapting creature… I would ascertain that the reason you have been sick most of your life is that your blood has had only your insides to mould and adapt too, however when your blood flowed to the surface it adapted itself to it surrounding absorbing new elements and the like, your blood itself can absorb limitless possibilities of different materials. It can adapt and change itself to suit its surroundings. For instance if you were around say, wood. Your blood could adapt wood like properties if you wished, however its powerful by itself as just a standstill.., as you saw you can adapt your blood to whatever you want without needing to absorb any surrounding properties. further more I would ascertain you could also absorb powers around you within your bloodstream as Im more than certain you just did earlier unwittingly," I couldn't believe it even more, my body having the ability to change and mould and absorb whatever it wishes, by the professor's word it sound as if I was almost invincible, how could I even be beaten? I almost smiled but then I remembered that all this time. All these years in my hospital bed, all that needed to be done was a simple cut. And I would have been cured. Of course just before that explosion I felt my skin being cut. My blood must have protected me? Well that was one of a million questions I had floating around my head.

"But sir how do I operate this power I mean, how does it work?" the professor chuckled at me and took my arm and pulled it towards himself and looked it up and down

"That my boy remains to truly be seen" and suddenly our hands vibrated and I noticed the professor was wearing one of the wristbands that everyone else was it appeared that he had an impending appointment, but I needed more answers I didn't want to leave till I had more answers, there was so much left unanswered, but I had no choice the professor walked to the door, past the beakers and the mini computer room and gestured towards the door

"Im sure Ile see you again in a little bit to talk to you more, until now Im sure you have a class. Your watch will tell you where to go, oh and Navar, I am ever so sorry for that incident with Sinder, you can trust me that an investigation is being penned at this very moment" and I was shuffled out of his room. Towards the hall way under the stairs but I couldn't think of that. I couldn't think of anything all I had were more questions.

I made my way down the hallway looking out towards the windows that were placed all along the pale blue hallway; I noticed the sun for the first time this morning But this time I didn't hate it, I was surprised I even stopped to have a closer look. This was the first time I actually stared at the sun with reverence, the first time I didn't look up the sun with hate and envy of those people who were privileged to spend time under its rays. No this time I was one of those people; I was now one of those people I used to hate so much. And this made me smile.

Before I knew it I had made it to my classroom. I was a little nervous to go in coz the lesson had already started. I sucked in my breath and walked in; around the room there was complete silence as everyone started at me. One tiny girl from the back of the room started a little clap and there were some whispers behind my back. I heard someone call my name from the left side of the room. It was Shane he was sitting with Linda, Leigh and Kyle in a table somewhere near the end, the class room looked more like a library and everything looked quite comfortable and expensive.

"yes, yes children that's quite enough, Mr Keelan can you please take a seat so we can continue on with the class!" I was so shocked I jumped a little the voiced belonged to an astoundingly fat man with a large beard who beckoned me next to a seat near Shane near the back of the class I sat down and the man clapped his hands and told us to return to work.

"Nav your back dude, how was the meeting with the professor… did he grill ya or somethin?" asked Leigh who was on the other side of the table I looked at him as he took his arm from around Linda who was trying to focus on scrunching up a piece of paper on the table, when she looked up to say hello to me I heard a silent click from the head of the table and the piece of paper burst into blue flame. Linda noticed this looked at Shane with a very angry face and smacked Shane on the back of the head with her palm and gave him an even filthier look. I looked away and noticed Leigh was still waiting for my answer. Hah, answers sometimes they were so simple, sometimes harder than you could imagine.

"oh um, no he really just wanted to know if I was ok, and he explained to me some things."

"Oh really... what kinda things" asked Shane, at this point I really didn't want to go through it all again because frankly I didn't even know what to say. Luckily Kyle interjected right on time

"Dude that was soo cool, that thing you did in the gym room, everyone's talking about it Your the talk of the school!" Never really thought out the ramifications of my actions in the class earlier today its not like I really had control of my actions anyway but this I supposed could a good thing.

"Talking about me, saying what?" I asked hoping I would get a good answer and not a dubious one

"Oh about the strong kid with the blood powers mostly and how cool it was and everything it really has blown a lot out of proportion if you ask me everyone who was in the class has been telling everyone else, and well you know how rumours go" explained Linda, in a kind down to earth kinda way, truth was, no I didn't know how rumours went, but they didn't need to know that

"yeah I agree, it wasn't even that good anyway, nothing like what I can do, but you sure did show that punk kid something eh?" preened Shane as he busied himself shaping a flame into a swan that burnt blue and almost managed to move its neck before it dissipated into thin air. I noticed a girl somewhere near the other side of the room look at Shane with some adoring eyes as the swan dissipated. I had little time to say anything but

"Uh... yeah ok" before the large teacher in the front of the class slapped his hand on the desk to get our attention. We all turned to look at him.

"Ok class today's task is quite simple. I need you to all think of codenames for your power, this isn't some corny superhero name, it's more purely for filing purposes once you have decided a name, speak it into your wrist watch and wait to see if it registers. That will be all for today."

"A superhero name now that's really different… wow any ideas guys?" questioned Kyle as he tapped his hand excitedly on the table.

"Well I guess... Considering I can turn into a bear... Well kinda... Im gonna call myself "bear" " as he said this he spoke the name into his wrist watched it beeped twice and then silenced itself again. Leigh turned to Linda who was trying to think of a name and helped her try and think of a name. I had no idea what to call myself so I turned to Shane and asked him what he was gonna call himself

"What you gonna call yourself Shane?" he clenched his fist and a flame from his hands ceased to exist he looked at me and began to preen himself again sticking his chest out proudly

"Well I think mines quite simple, the blue flame!" and then he sprouted some flame from one of his eyes. Purely for what I thought was dramatic effect. I decided to leave him to his thoughts and focused to Kyle who was staring up at the ceiling obviously thinking about his name as well

"Kyle how about you? You got any ideas for a name" Kyle pulled his head down with stunning amount of speed his hair seemed to flow at its own rate unbeknown to his amazing speed

"Yeah I know what I want... I think Im going to go with THE KITSUNE!" when he said that his wristwatch beeped twice and then silenced itself I noticed him smile soon after meaning his name must of been registered.

"What's a... kitsune?" I asked, I really had no idea what they were, then again I really didn't have a clue what many things in life was considering most of it was spent on a hospital bed. Kyle looked at me and began to use his arms to try and shape something out of mid air

"a kitsune is a Japanese fox spirit of speed, and time travel and mischief and they can control nature and stuff, course coz I cant control nature and all that other stuff, its just ive always liked kitsune, there like my icons kind of." explained Kyle

"Oh ok... err cool!" I said. I then turned my attention to Linda to find out what she was gonna call herself she smiled at me and said she had settled on "Gothica" I chuckled a little bit which earned me a bit of a look from Leigh. Now the only problem was trying to name myself. I looked round my group sitting around me and tried to ask for ideas

"How about emo boy?" said Shane as he laughed and flickered one of his fingers out of flame. Linda slapped him on the back of the head with her hand again. she tilted her head a little on the left and tried to think about it a little.

"How about the err human octopus. You know; because of those tentacles everywhere" I almost wanted to tell her that was an inherent reaction of my powers or something like the professor said, but it was just far to hard, I didn't understand much of what he said, I couldn't imagine they would either.

"How about Spiderman? A real life Spiderman?" said Kyle and this got a little people laughing i kinda snuck a little smile and looked at Leigh

"How about I dunno… bleed... boy?" said Leigh. Trying to spit at least something out to make himself seem less stupid, funny I thought that idea made him seem a little stupider. But It did give me a little idea about what to call myself, it was obvious it was always there, and was the source of all of, of absolutely all of this

"Its ok I know what Im going to call myself" i lifted my wristwatch up to my mouth and said

"Im going to call myself... blood"

CHAPTER EIGHT

Blood sport

The next couple of days went by pretty much the same as usual. I started to gather a few new constants of things I needed. However today I decided to do something a little different today I really wanted to call my mum only problem being I didn't really know how, or even where. Life is so stupid when the easiest things in are sometimes the hardest. I woke up on what I guessed was Saturday, this was the first weekend I had ever had at the institute and I wasn't exactly sure what people did on weekends, heck I've never even really had a weekend it was always the general mundane busy activities that people busied themselves about in the hospital that served as my "weekends". I awoke to find Kovu cleaning himself on the end of my bed, he noticed me awaken and started to walk over to my lap, I noticed that no one else was awake yet, or so it seemed anyway, Shane was still asleep and he had a strange little blue flame halo floating above his head. Linda had sneaked into Leigh's bed over night and Kyle was sound asleep curled up near a wall and I hadn't seen the Simkin since the incident but I was kinda glad about that anyway I would have been rather happy to never see him again. I was patting Kovu (who was on my lap) when I noticed angel walking over to me, my heart sunk again, it was funny I thought to myself I used to hate my heart despise it like a villain that pumped poison through my body , now it seemed to be quite a beneficiary of my body, but this wasn't my heart. it was that metaphysical feeling that was supposed to be represent my heart. I had never really believed all those tales about love and those songs about heartbreak and all that stuff, but this was getting off the point. This isn't love or heartbreak, it's just a sinking feeling, in my chest that seemed to constrict my emotions like a noose around my neck. But I had little time to debate it anymore coz she was almost at my bed, she smiled at me (such a beautiful smile) and began to speak:

"Good morning Kovu… and good morning nav! That was amazing the other day, I gotta admit some of us were a little scared what you did was so… unpredictable... but still amazing… you think you could do it again?" She was talking to me, again! I was still stunned, I didn't know what to say. What was there to say anyway? I didn't know how I did. I didn't even know what it was I did! So yet again I responded in my usual word vomit that i always managed to spit out every time I was talking to angel

"I err, i dunno…Im really not sure... How about you has your power gotten… better?" better? What the hell was I thinking? As if she could get any better I looked over her admiring her again. There she sat on the end of my bed wearing tight black jeans, and a tight striped shirt with the yet again low cut back, her perfect hair draped around her shoulders; she raised her eyebrows at me and tried to think of an answer.

"Oh actually... yes I found I can fling, feathers at people and there actually quite sharp. I accidentally cut some kid called Andy from the lion Faction when I was out flying in the quad. luckily he could turn to stone or something and he was fine... hey did you have your naming class what name did you choose?" I was only listening a little bit I was still a little transfixed in her lips and only half noticed the question, I was also watching Kovu prod over to angel meowing loudly as she stuck out a hand to pat him.

"I um... I named myself (I looked at my arm where that cut was) I named myself, blood. How about you?" she looked at where I was cut in my arm as well and looked my arm up and down as well. She pointed her finger at me

"Blood hey, that's actually quite suiting I think, you were starting to resemble something that looked like a bleeding Spiderman at some point. It was actually quite freaky... oh try and think what i called myself?" she pulled up her wristwatch to show a smaller raven emblem on it above it, it said "angel" " she winked at me and got off my bed and began to walk up to the door past Shane. I really wanted the conversation to continue, I tried to think of something to string it along, anything to keep her in my life for precious more seconds. I remembered I really wanted to call my mum Perhaps she would know how to help me with this? I thought to myself

"hey angel.. Do you know how I could um... Ring my mum? I haven't spoken to her since I got her, and Im just a little worried you know " she looked back and laughed a little and then looked very puzzled she walked towards me a pulled something out of he pocket

"You mean you... don't have a mobile? Wow that's really strange! (She pulled out her mobile and handed it to me) you can use mine if you want." I had a look what was in my hand. I had seen these things a couple of times but I had never used one. I guessed it probably worked like the odd ipod contraption I had back at the hospital. I remember the number my mum told me and dialled it into the keypad and pressed the green button angel pointed too she then said something like "ill leave you to your privacy" and strode over to her bed and pulled out some odd book. I focused myself to the mobile. It was ringing, and soon after the ringing stopped and a voice spoke over the phone

"Hello?" it was my mother! Her voice soothed every part of my body and I felt as if I was already half asleep I almost forgotten to even respond to the question.

"Oh, hi mum!" I heard some clattering noises and I think she may have dropped the phone. When she picked it up I could hear her almost crying, and through muffled words again she said

"Navar, how are you sweetheart! You sound fantastic, you really sound well! What are you doing where are you?" so I set detailing to my mother everything that had happened she ooohed and ahhed in all the right places and offered all sorts of motherly advice. She was particularly concerned when she heard about the incident with the Simkin but after she heard about the explanation given by the professor and then end of it she said she had to go coz there was a knock at the door I begrudgingly accepted and within minutes there was a slow beep that I gathered meant that she was no longer there. I got out of bed and gave angel her phone which startled her a little bit. She said she'd like to stay and chat a little more but she had to go catch up with some of her friends for the weekend. After she left I looked around and noticed Shane and Kyle were both awake and were both looking out the window, and by now as well Linda and Leigh had also woken up and were dressed, I spied a wink from Linda, I think I may have blushed a little. It was Kyle who spoke first

"So um what do we do on weekends here?" this started a murmur of discussions and we started trying to think about what we actually did here on the weekends

"I wonder if we still have classes?" asked Shane

"I hope so!" explained Linda, it was fairly plain to see at this point that Linda quite enjoyed this institute, and was really concentrating on trying to hone her powers. I however had a sneaking suspicion that this was she could psychically slap Shane from the other side of the room as to get him out of his constant tendency to show off at every given point, which seemed to annoy Linda the most out of all us. After much debate we all decide that if there wasn't a class we'd go find somewhere secluded and try and test our each others powers. I was a little apprehensive as to testing my powers, mostly coz the way the professor explained it, it seemed as it was also limitless. And I really had no way of controlling it. Nevertheless we all got out of the room and headed towards the main hall where our watches indicated that breakfast was being served. When we got there, I sat down and grabbed a box of cereal and began pouring it into my bowl.

After eating my breakfast the professor went to stand up to the podium and grabbed all our attention

"Children! Children! May I have your attention! As you may realise today is Saturday! And yes of course there are no classes today and you will be free to roam the extensive grounds and many nature quads we have here as much as you wish, however you are not permitted to leave the grounds without a faculty leader present, but of course may explore within the confines as much as you like and let me say, I've been here several years and still am yet to discover all the secrets of this place, so I can assure you will be at no loss finding things or place to find." The hall erupted with voices and the professor clapped his hands together trying to gain more attention over the voices of the crowd.

"Attention! Attention! I was not finished children! AHEM as I was saying you may roam the confines, however we have organised an extra curricular sport known as hero duelling. And for a special treat, we have the prestigious honour of hero and possible legend: Mr phoenix madden, Mr madden has agreed to lead the proceedings of the hero duelling and has also expressed keen interest in being the faculty leader of the lion house as the previous leader has since left the job."

Everyone looked at each other as a man rose from the side of the podium and walked towards the microphone, he wore a red velvet cloak that flowed down to his feet, he had spiky orange hair, and a beard as spiky and orange as the hair it grew up into. The beard itself resembled something like a mane to me. He seemed to carry himself with quite an amount of high regard, and looked rather pompous. He stepped up to the podium cleared his throat and began to speak:

"Ladies and gentlemen I was asked here to help start an extra curricular activity for all of you here, I have devised a sort of a duelling club... you will be able to verse one another under controlled conditions, our facility's nurse will be on call to heal any minor injuries, and there will be no fatalities. Absolutely no fatalities! We have devised an ingenious method of protecting each other's lives and grievous wounds, so none of you here need to be afraid of being hurt in any way possible, you will be instantly healed the moment your injuries become too much for you to sustain" he stole a look at everyone around he was quite a stern man. He seemed quite battle hardened he even had a scar behind his left eye. There was excitement and movement from everybody around the large hall, the man spoke again

"As I was saying registration will be today if you do choose to register… do at your own risk. You will then be sorted into orienteering groups based on your factions and from then I will ascertain wether or not we will be having group competitions or solo based upon the numbers who register, naturally your faculty leader will also judge if you are in due state to compete, regardless if you register or not" I looked around too the people around me they were all talking to each other with great amounts of enthusiasm. It was Shane who first spoke to me as he slapped me on the back and squeezed in next to me.

"Thinking of competing buddy? I'd love to go head to head with you, I think it would be really interesting to see the limit of your abilities" he had a smug look on his face, to be honest, I liked Shane but I did think he got lost in his own ego a little to much or at least that's what I looked like, I also thought this had much to do with him trying to show dominance over me rather than friendship. But never the less it seemed friendly enough.

" Im not sure if Im going to compete.. I mean I don't really know how to use my powers. Let alone use them against people" Shane seemed quite disappointed with this answer but had little time to rebut before we were both interrupted by Kyle who flew into a seat parallel to me.

"We should all make a team and join. We could be all like whoosh! And kick everyone's but!" he looked at Shane who smiled at little bit and then looked towards Linda and Leigh

"Are you two thinking of competing, we could all make a team together?" Linda and Leigh looked at each other and shrugged. Linda spoke first

"I don't think Im really ready to compete; I mean my powers aren't really developed enough to be weaponized yet and I'm not sure if I'm much of a competitor at this point. It was Leigh who spoke next

"yeah I'm not sure I'm going to compete much yet either I mean. I haven't really got much of a grasp on my powers like you guys. I mean Shane can almost fly with his powers, and the other day Kyle said he felt like he was growing a tail, that made him faster!.. I'm just not sure how much I could put into a fight at the moment. But when I get more powerful... Just you wait!"

"So then it's settled Were a team!" Kyle said this as he pulled both Shane and I closer to his side off the table into a hug. I really didn't think the idea of me joining some sort hero duelling team was the best idea, but Kyle and Shane really weren't giving much choice to say no.

Our watches flashed and gave Kyle, Shane and I directions towards the orienteering room where we would start testing ourselves. I was getting both anxious and excited I wasn't sure I should really compete. But if what the professor said was true and I actually had the abilities he mentioned then I could most probably take most of the people against me out of the room. I found this most exciting. We made our way to the room and opened the doors. Where stood Mr Holmes from our power exploration classes, this was the first time I had seen him since the incident I didn't know what to expect from him but he just smiled, waved and gestured us in. there was a large crowd up in the beachers and they were all clapping as we made our way towards Mr Holmes, I noticed Linda and Leigh in the crowd they waved at us. Mr Holmes took us three in his massive arms and gestured us towards him. He bent down a little to get to our level and began to explain the situation

"Three people out of all the people in raven house, we get three people! Oh never mind... I wonder how much the other houses got.. Probably at lest ten! Oh well I've seen your boys abilities, I know you'll do well. Ok today is all about learning to use your abilities in a competitive nature. Normally there are inhibitors in place to stop you using your powers against each other. When you're in battle against each other these inhibitors will be lifted. However your battle will be closely monitored for possibility of grievous injuries. If such an even occurs inhibiters will be placed back ON, ok your going start soon remember to take it slow, try to forget everyone's watching and just do your best. Im gonna place you in three points away from each other and Ile signal when the battle is to begin" we were all placed several meters away from each other. Kyle was placed the further away from everyone else and Shane was a little closer to my right. I looked over to him, I could see he was itching for a fight, I however wasn't so sure. Suddenly a yellow burst sprouted from the middle of the room exploded, I gathered that was the signal for the beginning of the battle. I couldn't hear much over the roar of the crowd. I did manage to hear Kyle yell out "WHOOSH!" and Shane yell out "FLAME ON" and begin to float, I couldn't believe it Shane had learnt how to hover, already? And here I was with no idea how to initiate my abilities. I was looking around for somewhere to hide and let Shane and Kyle take each other out. Somewhere in the air I noticed a orange blur, jump from the sky and try and clothesline Shane while he was still gathering heat. The blur was Kyle he was going at a breakneck speed around the arena jumping every now and again to strike at Shane, Shane slowly flew up to the top of the roof where Kyle couldn't catch him, he began to spray blue fireballs everywhere in an attempt to catch Kyle off guard, then from out of nowhere an orange blur slammed up near me, I felt something hard slam towards my stomach, and I was thrown backwards. Shane noticed this well and through a fireball at me. Luckily it missed me and landed near me leaving some smouldering hot splinters of broken polished floorboards in its wake, as I was getting up I noticed it was Kyle that punched me he left in another orange blur, and I was left to my own devices. If I didn't figure out what to do soon I was going to get badly hurt, even killed even despite the obvious precautions they had placed, this was really dangerous for someone who didn't know how to use their powers. I looked around my immediate area. I spied some of the broken pieces of polished floorboards. And then it came to me. of course! Blood! I grabbed one of the pieces of splintered wood and slit my wrists in a desperate attempt to try and trigger my power. Again that wondrous feeling of oozing blood came over me as it rushed out of the cut in my arm. I felt it overcome me again. I knew I needed to focus. But focus on what! I had a million different things I could focus on. Not to mention the battle going on around me. I noticed Shane had floated down and was starting to try and flame isolated patches of ground in another attempt to catch Kyle by accident. I had to think, the power was overcoming me. I remembered back to when angel said I looked like Spiderman. Ok Spiderman. I focused on Spiderman, and with that the power around me seemed to settle a little bit, my blood shimmered a little around me as if recalling something familiar, and I felt that strange feeling I had when I thought the Simkin, I yelled out an encouraging scream that got the attention of Shane and Kyle. They both began to advance on me I didn't have much time to react. I saw the roof as my escape and wished myself up there. Before I knew it, tentacles from my back had latched onto the roof and pulled me towards the roof. I was adhering to it much like a spider. Hmmf much like Spiderman indeed. Shane was still flinging random fireballs at me, and Kyle was trying to take advantage of this and get one of Shane's fireballs stuck in his slipstream. I think at this point I was ready to try and really test out these powers! I willed myself off the roof and tried a web sling like Spiderman to the other side of the room amazingly it worked, a red blood like snare went whipping out of my wrist I landed easily on the other side of the hall after doing a triple somersault with some other amazing acrobatics that surprised me completely. I spied Shane and Kyle looking at each other and silently agreeing to go for me first. Shane flew up to the top of the gym again and began flinging fireballs at me, while Kyle again rushed at me with his breakneck speeds. But this time I was ready. I sent whips from my body to form a crude net on both sides of my body; Kyle was accidentally caught unawares in one of them. I tried to pull him in as I whipped him with another on of my tentacles that had sprouted from the larger part of my forearm. He used this to his advantage he grabbed the stray tentacle and started to run with it all of a sudden was being dragged behind him as if on some leash and Shane's fireballs were rapidly getting closer and hotter. There was nothing left to do but evasive action. I dug my heels into the polished floorboards as an anchor and sprouted several other tentacles that spiked themself into the ground with makeshift spikes at the end of there tether. This wrenched Kyle onto his back at the sudden stop of movement. When he stopped I grabbed one tentacle whipped it around him, and flung him to the other side of the room as if he was a used piece of paper. I had little time to revel in the brutality of what I had just done, when my back burned and sizzled. It was Shane he finally landed a fireball and was now streaking across the field at a steady rate flinging more fireballs at me I aimed a tentacle at one of the blue fireballs and managed to whip it out unfortunately the fireball burned the edges of my tentacle and I had to retract it and whip out a new one and another, and another. I didn't know how much longer I could keep this up, he was starting to gain intensity and ferocity, I needed to do something I sunk myself into my instincts, I flipped myself onto my back with the aid of some more tentacles I aimed myself at Shane feet first and launched myself like a rocket feet first towards him. I could feel my hands changing into crude weapons; sword like attachments had replaced my hands before long my feet had made a landing on Shane's blue burning chest I had literally knocked the wind out of him, and he began to soar downwards with the force of my attack. We landed with a loud thud and broke a wide vicinity of polished floorboards on our landing. I looked at my forearms they were blood red and shaped near the end into cruel blood red swords and all along my arm was a black sinew, that sided along it all as if to keep my form in place. My arms were stabbed into the ground near Shane's head, I looked at his face he was out cold he had since ceased burning and really seemed to be unconscious I was just glad that I managed to miss his head with my odd bladed arms, I had no intention of hurting anyone. I heard a loud echo of applause as I saw Mr Holmes run over towards me. He picked my hand up and placed it in the air as in to declare victory. I slowly started noticing my surroundings; I also noticed that I had started breathing quite heavily. I heard a loud beep as Shane and Kyle appeared to come too as some. Shane fidgeted from behind me, and used me as an anchor to get up he leant against me and coughed into my ear and said

"Well done nav… but… this isn't over!" he rested on my shoulder some more. Kyle joined us soon after. He shook our hands and decided to lean against me. Then everything else was drowned in applause.

CHAPTER NINE

Developments

Over the next couple of days, id heard a fair different views on how some of the other orienteering competitions. I'd even heard some people say there was a sort of red Spiderman that dominated one of the competitions. I almost had to laugh knowing that they were talking about me was even odder. In the snake Faction there was one kid who went invisible, and couldn't turn it off it took the faculty a whole hour to find him, one of the others in the snake group (who had the power to control other people) accidentally took over one of the younger kids in the crowd, and didn't know where he was for a full ten minutes. The general feel of the snake team was that their powers weren't very good used against people with other snake like powers however they said there was one mysterious kid, who dominated the entire match with very little ease. Over at the lion group it was a different story. they had four people competing against each other one kid recorded some of it and showed it too me on his phone ( he actually wanted my autograph!) they had Kane, josh, another kid called Andy (who could turn to rock and throw boulders, and this other kid. who's name I didn't remember that could sprout chains from his wrists. the match was really interesting, it went for longer than ours and everyone seemed more evenly matched than the competition between Shane, Kyle and I. however the clear winner of the match was Andy. he managed to turn to stone, evade josh ( who tried to explode, but yet again.. not very well) trip Josh over with a boulder. pound the ground so hard the chain kid flew up into the air and landed on Kane. who at that point was invisible and then got revealed when chain kid landed on him. giving Andy another chance to fling a boulder at the two and knock them out. our battle however was a little different. I think I only heard a couple of true adaptations. I even heard one small kid telling a girl that Shane set the whole room on fire. Others say Kyle created a whirlwind that would of imploded the entire gym if he didn't stop. However most of them were talking about me, some people came up and asked me how i did it. i really had no clue to what to tell them so i tried to shrug it off. Others saw me and walked the other way. However one of the best things was, i had become a little bit of a celebrity in raven sector, and it was truly a new experience for me, people from no where wanted to start talking to me and be my friends. I really had no idea how to take any of it. I've never even really had friends anyway, let alone am popular. I think I even saw someone with "go blood" written on there arm in texta. I blushed again.

I opened my eyes. Kovu was clawing my face it hurt a little actually So I brushed him off my chest to my surprise it was still night time, everyone around me was still asleep. I didn't think I could get back to sleep. Something was keeping me up, it was like a weird itch in the back of my head. I didn't want to stay in my dorm either (Kyle was snoring really loudly). And then I noticed Kovu was getting up to leave my room. This was quite an oddity to me, I had never really thought about what Kovu did all day he was always generally on my bed or at least around it anyway. I decided to follow him, Kovu sneaked out of the room, I called to him, but he meowed and kept running I stopped when I was distracted, I had never been in these hallways in the darkness, I took a moment to absorb it reminded me how much I used too like the darkness and its misunderstood identity. By this point I'd lost Kovu and I decided to give up, finding a longhaired grey cat in the middle of the night was trying to find a needle in a haystack besides, I'm sure he would know where to go if he needed to find me, besides he didn't really have much of anywhere to really go. As far as I knew you couldn't exit this facility without permission. I took a deep breath and went to walk a little bit further towards, what seemed like the control centre of this facility it was always protected by some sort of odd force field, but I never took much notice beyond that. However this time that force field was down. Suddenly the darkness itself flashed. Searing white pain ran all through my body, I couldn't move it was excruciating. I felt myself convulsing when I finally came too all I could see was darkness. And then from the middle of the room, some sort of cloaked figure span himself into the darkness and disappeared into nothingness. I could feel myself losing my grip on reality again, the last thing I remember was a haunting laugh that transcended that black oddity.

Voices.

I felt someone's hands on my shoulders, they were kind and gentle and they seemed to be caring, I opened my eyes again. I was still in the corridor; I could feel the cold floor underneath me. I got myself up slowly, the girl before me had medium length hair that curled around her shoulders. She had a great smile and Smokey brown eyes and dark lips. She was wearing a green top and some black track pants. She dusted some of the dirt off me and began to speak

"Hey... you're that nav kid. I've heard about you! Im Liz! But hey what you doing on the floor though? Having fun?" I tried to think about how to phrase this somehow "I saw this odd black spectre that disappeared into nothingness and shortly after that I passed out" really didn't that was going to really go down well. I chose yet again another one of my constants and decided to play it dumb

"I uh really don't know... I went for a walk... and then I woke up here. I guess I probably slipped on something... Hey thanks for waking me up... what time is it?" Liz looked up at her watch; I found this a little odd that she was wearing a watch and our wristband that we all have to wear. I noticed hers said "snakeskin" and it had a little emblem on the bottom that resembled a snake. It also occurred to me at this point. That of all the amazing and complex things these wristwatches could do, they couldn't to do the simple thing of tell the time. I smirked a little. Liz looked up and began to tell me the time

"Its 6am in the morning. I get up early every morning, and go for a little run before our teacher wakes up and makes us do, oh um... Gotta keep fresh you know!" six am? I looked out into one of the windows that this entire path almost consisted entirely of, it was true the sun was only just beginning to rise and I could hear a myriad of birdcalls and animal calls whistling through the air as nature woke up. I looked back up at Liz, she was looking rather odd, she had her head bent forwards in a rather strange fashion, her arms were draped together near around her belt, and she was scuffing the feet in an odd fashion, she began to speak in a rather sheepish fashion

"Hey um... Blood err nav... You think you could show me your powers! I mean they say your like Spiderman but like way cooler. ooo please can you show me.. It'd be soo cool!" I really had no intention of showing this girl my powers, for a variety of reasons really one being I didn't really know how to control it, and secondly the only way I really knew how to activate it at this point was to cut myself, and I didn't feel like doing that either. I decided to play it dumb again,

"I would love to... but I don't really know... Well how too... I mean its more of an instinct thing... I can't switch it on it off. But hey what's your power? You're name says 'snakeskin' that's a really weird name... What can you do..?" I guessed that considering that she was in the snake group that it would be something sneaky or deceptive or on the rather. I was still interested to see what kind of power could match the odd name of "snakeskin" she laughed a little and grinned a little bit of mischievous smile

"oh only this" there was a haze of smoke and then what looked indeed like snake skin shredded off Liz and landed on the ground and dissipated. Before me, stood well... me... it was really odd. I've never really looked at myself like this before. I noticed that body was much more muscle defined than usual, I was still wearing the same clothes I always did (I didn't have anything else to change too) it was me.. Except for that cheeky grin I wore... I was still really shocked. i took three steps backwards in a cautionary manner.. Then my other me laughed a second laugh and shed its skin again in a second puff of smoke appeared before me. Liz chuckled again and stepped towards me.

"Its ok silly... that's my power… fun isn't it!! I can change into other people. Not much of an offensive power... but it's defiantly cool though… Anyway... I'le catch up with you later... I want to finish my run… seeya nav... Have fun!!!" and she left me where I stood. I started to remember that I was cold again. I really wish I had a jumper. I thought to myself that I really had to figure out a way to get more clothes; I noted to myself that I would probably be a good idea speak with Mr Holmes later today. See if he can get me some more clothes. I began to walk back to my bed, I figured I could use some more sleep. When there was a strong gust of wind beside me and a little nudge I looked back and realised that the gust of wind was Kyle

"Hey Kyle! What you doing up so early?" Kyle looked more excited than usual

"I just woke up a little while ago... and then I found well... everyone was asleep and I really wanted to show someone, and I saw you weren't in your bed so I thought I could show you! So I was looking for you.

"Ok Kyle... Um show me what?" I said questiongly

"This! Check it out I told people I was growing tail! And no one believed me... see it's a fox's tail. Just like a kitsune... I wonder what I means.. Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if i turned into a kitsune! You know I was reading about them… and really strong ones can control time and stuff" and there it was, exactly as he said a burnt red bushy tail flowing from his backside, it swished exactly like a real tail. I was really astounded. I really didn't know what to say. I raised one eyebrow and looked at Kyle.

"Hey since were up and everything, you wanna go for a walk..?" asked Kyle. I couldn't see why not. I felt like bed before, but there was something about Kyle that just seemed to energize you.

"Yeah ok... but hey... no speedy stuff... I wanna keep up ok!" he smiled and nodded and we began to travel to the nearest exit. I supposed we could watch the sunrise or something. We stepped out into the grass when something odd happened Kyle was standing still. He was trying to wrench his shoe out of the grass. But it seemed like his boot was stuck on something, like bubblegum or something.

"Ugh... it feels like my... shoes stuck on something... nav help!" I bent down and tried to help Kyle pull his leg out of the grass, it was really hard. It was like his foot was rooted in the ground or something

"Argh! It's really stuck Kyle. I dunno what to do... maybe try using your powers on it or something?" Kyle agreed with me... and with a "whoosh!" he pushed off in his usual speedy fashion. Nothing. Kyle was getting desperate and I really had no clue what to do either. Kyle yelled and raised his hand in an aggressive fashion when something odd happened. Some of the blades of grass followed his hand growing almost a metre long at their peak, I looked really puzzled at Kyle, however Kyle seemed quite the opposite, he seemed to get whatever the hell just happened.

"Of course...nature!" and he closed his eyes and focused, soon after the tall reed like blades of grasses receded to their normal size, and Kyle's foot came clean.

He beemed at me and began to explain.

"Nature... nav... Kitsune's can control nature as well. Hmm this is very interesting... I have a theory that even though our genes adapt to our situations needs, I think we may also have a small matter of influence over our evolutions as well, if this is true, and that we can actually influence the genes ourselves, I may have revolutionized the idea" Kyle surprised me sometimes. When he wasn't his giddy speedy self, He was actually quite intelligent. I remembered back to when we got off in the plane And he tinkered inside it for ten minutes, and when he came out said that the plane could now fly double as fast as it did before. I didn't really know how to respond. I just pulled up my forearms to my face and started looking at them, remembering what the professor said about me not having one mutant gene, but billions. Kyle saw me examining himself and started to say something

"Hey... how about that orienteering competition hey... you really managed to get a beat down on us... you were like Spiderman or something with that weird look. I thought I had you for a bit there, but jeez… you got some mighty powers there nav!" I put my arms down and smiled at Kyle

"Yeah... but I still don't really know how to control them. I mean it was really hard for me to do anything I had to focus really hard to beat you Kyle, your powers they come really easily to you there like natural... I have to admit Im a little jealous..." this seemed to cheer Kyle up a little bit. He smiled at me and then began to laugh a little

"yeah I suppose… least I didn't take it as bad a Shane. He really chucked the shits after the battle. Ha-ha some of those Asian girls that follow him around yelled at him for a little bit. It was a little funny" I smiled a little, I always liked it when Shane got pushed over his pedestal. Shane was an alright guy, he was just a little involved with his powers sometimes.

"Ha-ha really? haha! to be honest I didn't really to mean to hurt anyone, seriously! Oh hey did I get you bad? Are you ok" Kyle laughed and pulled up some of his white sleeved shirt to show there were no bruises or scars.

"Nah I'm fine. The school nurse has healing powers so she fixed us up later in the day said that there's going to be a totally different way they handle injuries in the actual matches...hey you wanna head in... I think the others should be awake by now." I nodded and we headed to the great hall were breakfast would be getting served soon.

When we got closer to the entrance we saw there was a great crowd around the entrance to the hall. Kyle and I ran up to the crowd and tried to find out what was going on. I asked the kid next to me. He was a little bit taller than me he had very muscular arms. He had wide eyes, and had short spiky brown hair. He was wearing some tank top and jeans, I looked down at his wristband it said "obelisk" and it had a small lion symbol underneath it. if tapped him on his imposing shoulders and he turned around. He had a deep friendly voice

"Yo wasup? Pimpin " I was a little confused I looked at Kyle and then back at this obelisk guy

"Oh um...what happened here Obelisk?" he looked over at the where most of the people were congregated and then back at me, and looked down at the ground a little, until looking back up after composing himself

"Oh you can call me Andy! That's right THE Andy champion of lion Faction… and you are" he puffed up his chest to look even more imposing and important,

"Oh me... I'm nav... Wow err hi Andy. But what happened over there?" As soon as he heard my name he puffed his chest down and started to look a little shier than he was before

"Oh... wow... your... wow nav... I heard about you! That pathetic exploding kid josh and Kane the "ginger ninja" said they have power exploration class with you. Its defiantly a pleasure to meet you.. Oh over there? Looks like some snake girl got killed last night... pegahtini or something along those lines. She was some gypsy girl or something. I think her code name was "the darkness or something" she could like blend into the darkness and stuff. Looks like she got stabbed though oh hey... your friends with that Shane guy right... if you see him… tell him I'm looking for his ugly ass! Unfinished business or something" and with that Andy walked off to join some more of his lion Faction friends. Soon after that our wristwatches all buzzed and announced that there was an urgent meeting in the main hall. Everyone teared themselves from the body of the girl as one of the staff I had yet to meet. Just as I entered the hall I snuck a look at the body. It looked like it had been stabbed several times and almost like its very soul had been sucked out, it was quite perturbing.

In the hall I found a seat next to Linda and Leigh. Kyle took the first chance to tell them about his tail and the nature thing. Shane found a seat on the opposite side of me. Three Asian girls giggled and ran away back to there seats Shane just rolled his eyes and turned over to look at me

"I really wish they would stop following me" said Shane half looking over his shoulder

"Oh c'mon Shane...I bet you love the attention!" I rebutted. Knowing fully that his humility was simply an act or so I thought. He smiled and shook his head and looked at me

"How was your morning? (he looked over to Kyle) I see speed boy grew a tail... hey I haven't had a chance to really talk to you about our orienteering battle... that was really intense nav. I mean you took me by surprise... I would of had you otherwise... Totally" i smiled and shrugged my shoulders. I thought to myself, if he knew, what I knew about myself he wouldn't be saying that.

"I guess it was just a fluke... eh Shane? Anyway there's always next time. Oh hey! That rock guy said quote '_tell Shane Im looking for his ugly ass' _what's up with that guy? He seemed pretty peeved at you..?" Shane laughed and flickered a bit of flame from his little finger, in an obvious attempt to try and shrug off some of the obvious amount of hate he seemed to have for this obelisk guy.

"Oh that guy... he's a pain.. He's been on my back ever since I…uh… ACCIDENTLY threw a fireball at his BACK the other day... and now he has the audacity to call me some pretentious idiot... with a gang of schoolgirls following me around to keep me safe... its rather stupid really. Naturally he's just jealous! there all jealous" Shane puffed up his chest a little more and then suddenly out of no where his head jerked to the left and he had a read mark from on the side of his face. From further down the table I saw Linda cheering and Kyle laughing. It appeared she figured out how to slap Shane psychically. Even I smiled a bit. But Linda payed the price for using her powers against someone else. Her watch flashed up. And said her power had been inhibited for the next hour. She still seemed to think it was worth it. I continued to talk to Shane again

"you know, you can't burn rock Shane-" and before I had more time to continue the professor had stood up to the podium and demanded our attention. It took little time for him to gather silence. He began to talk quite imminently

"Ladies and gentlemen may I please have your attention please, we have all faced a horrible incident of the murder of young pegahtini unomoo... however I must stress to you that this was a completely isolated incident and we are taking all possible measure to investigate the procedure. Furthermore in light of this situation, we have set up a seminar for all of you, this seminar will focus mainly on information and defence against the evil that will sometimes cohort to our wellbeing. Have young pegahtini in our prayers children. That is all. "

We all discussed this recent development. And decided to spend the rest of the day outside watching the sun go down

CHAPTER TEN

Dark forces

The institute had a bit of a darker tone the next couple of days. People were walking around talking a bit less. But it was still ok in the whole, however with a darker undertone about everything. I woke up the next Friday (Kovu by the way seemed to find his way back to my room quite fine). I still wasn't sure where he was going. but he seemed to be doing a lot more exploring these days, he was generally in my room when I came in and out from whatever activities I was doing for the day so it never really bothered me. Today was Friday, and it was our first seminar of the dark forces we were supposed to be getting to know about. this all seemed a little far ahead for me. I mean ok all of us were special in our own kind of way. but it was like this place was setting us all up to be superhero's. even more questions about what the place exactly was. I never really thought about it. Mostly coz I was happy here, I never really wanted to question it to much. I tried to stop analysing things of late, I always used to over analyse things back at the hospital. hmmf that was really all I had to do to pass the time. but now was different. now I had friends, a life, and so much more I didn't even want to think about. I think I was finally happy with myself. and for this I tried my best to stop over analysing things. To get the most of my new life, I tried my best to leave my old one behind. There was too much depression in the past, the future held so much better prospects for me. And I choose to focus on that.

Sunlight.

I now welcome it. Before i used to loathe it, hmm funny how things change isn't it? I felt a lump at the end of my bed. it moving and rolling around. It was Kovu, I woke up and pulled myself up in my bed. I checked the clock near my bed. It was about seven thirty, people generally woke up at about eight sometimes much later, it all really depended on the day. I pulled myself up to sit up in my bed and looked at my hand. I was trying to see if I could activate my power without cutting myself. The blood beneath began to boil underneath my fingers It grew quicker and quicker and I could feel it getting more violent. My hand started to convulse slightly but it was really starting to drain my energy, I stopped concentrating my hand and not a moment too soon because Angel was walking over to my bed. She sat down on the end of my bed and started patting Kovu.

"Good morning nav! And yes you two Kovu..." she ran her hands over Kovu's belly and looked up to me.. Her eyes twinkled with an amazing blue... and her teeth were a brilliant white... She had a green dressing gown wrapped around her. My stomach retched again I just tried to focus on her and push it down

"Hey good morning angel... how you been? I haven't seen you for a while" she smiled a little and shifted her dressing gown a little bit

"Yeah, I guess you haven't why... Miss me? (She winked) hey I was meaning to congratulate you; they were some impressive abilities you had there. All I can really do is fly, but you totally owned Shane and Kyle. Hey did you see Kyle grew a tail?!" I blushed a little bit, and then just smiled a bit more. By this point I was fairly used too compliments about my supposed "performance" but it still came as a shock coming from her.

"Hey um... thanks it was nothing really...mostly a fluke really...hey shame about that girl hey" she smiled at me but then looked a little downhearted… she sunk her head into her chest and wiped her eyes a little bit

"I uh... knew... her... she was one of my friends, friends you know... I just feel really sad for her! I mean it's just so terrible! Who would do such a thing!" she started sobbing gently on the end of my bed, I didn't really know what to do, but I wanted to do something, I couldn't stand to see her sad, something about her beautiful face being saddened slightly infuriated me. I placed my hand on one her hands. It was warm and gentle and it felt odd to touch. Like it was a lizard that could strike me at anytime, Angel looked up sucked in some air wiped off her tears got up and kissed me on the cheek.

"thanks… nav" she got up and went to the girls dressing room.

The spot she kissed me on the cheek. Burnt more than any one of Shane's fireballs I never wanted to wash my cheek again.

Everyone was asleep after angel left. I decided I would get up and go for a walk. I had a thought too how this institute wasn't really like a school I first thought it was, sure we had classes but it wasn't really like that. Admittingly I never really thought about the schools particular identity much anyway. I never really liked thinking much about the things I truly held dear, however it just dawned on me that this was more of a place for people of the like, to be with people more like each other, to find a sort of understanding within the confides on this institute. However I didn't really have much time to think about it. I heard my name called from somewhere in the distance of the dormitory.

"Hey Nav dude, wait up!" it was Shane, seemed like he had woken up he ran up to me as fast as he could. He arrived a little flustered but otherwise his usual cool and calm demeanour.

"Hey man… how are ya?" this shocked me a little. I liked Shane, despite his obvious over confidence in himself, he was generally nice, and on top of that he helped me in a way to understand the kind of control we should all have over all of powers. Out of everyone here in this school, Shane was more than defiantly one of the top people in terms of controlling his powers. However this could of possibly due to him always mucking around with them. Unlike many he had the kind of power you could flaunt. Even while stationary, unlike mine... which if you ask me, even with its apparent and possible omni potency. Was quite useless in a day to day way, Shane looked up to me and brushed a piece of his hair away from his eyes. I was almost surprised to see no flame work hiding in any of his eyes this time, however I noticed more of a deeper meaning in his eyes I had never seen before. Shane began to speak:

"Hey Nav, I saw you were awake, and I was… well wondering if I could have a talk to you" I was quite taken aback by this but I just looked up and smiled.

"Yeah sure...um…what's up?" Shane looked a little more relieved and looked up towards to see where we were heading (which was no where in particular) and began to speak again

"Its just I dunno… have you noticed that people don't seem to like me... like their jealous or something… I don't understand why though… I was just wondering if you knew why?" again. I was quite shocked about this, I never really took the time to wonder if Shane really cared what people thought about him, if he wasn't already amused by sculpting a flame swan, or swinging a plume of blue flame around his finger, he was trying to avoid the swarm of Asian girls that always followed him around. I think I once even spied them making a t-shirt saying "the blue flame" with the letters on fire (blue flame of course). I noticed I was still too deep in my thoughts and had forgotten to reply to Shane, who was still looking at me, waiting for his answer.

"Um well… I dunno if people hate you... but you are always showing off your power all the time. Maybe people are sick of you shoving it in their face?" Shane's eyes lighted up with an odd sort of confusion I'd never seen, his blue eyes flickered a little, and I was quite sure at least one of them was about to burst into flame. However he just looked at his hands a little and then frowned.

"I never really thought of it that way you know... I... im not showing off my powers, I just well really like them you know, all my life has been fairly average you know, and I never had anything different, its always just been the same. That was until my mother died, and it was kind of shortly after that, that I discovered my powers and I've always thought of them in some was as a weird sort of divine intervention of something, and so I want to be the best at my powers I possibly can you know? For my mum and then kinda after that my life pretty much went to shit, and I always had my powers to consul me with, and c'mon you cant honestly say that if you didn't have powers like mine you wouldn't be screwing around with them as well!"

I really never thought about it this way, I kinda saw Shane in a different light now, he was more misunderstood then he was cocky. And besides I kind of agreed with him, I was even a little bit jealous

"It is a bit unfair... you know, that everyone has these cool flashy powers they can show off all the time. And well I still don't even know how to use my power, let alone flaunt it. I kind of reckon you got the better end of the deal if you ask me" after I said too Shane he however looked quite shocked And almost utterly confused, he looked at his hands again, and then smiled. He punched me on the shoulder and said:

"Better of the end of the deal…me.? You got it totally the wrong way around; if I could do half of the stuff you could do... I mean… all that Spiderman shit? Dude no idea... then again. I can fly..." he smirked and looked up a little. There was a large crowd gathered around the hall (which apparently we had made it too on our random walk) I couldn't figure out why. Then I looked at Shane's watch (it was plainly in front of my face). Because he was pointing at the door to someone else his watch clearly said "_dark forces protection class in 0:02 minutes"_ I was quite surprised. I guess I really lost track of time because of that talk I had with Shane. I felt a tap on my shoulder it was Linda, Leigh and Kyle they all smiled and looked towards the door anxiously. All but Leigh who kept looking at his watch anxiously I turned to ask him about it

"Hey Leigh why do you keep looking at your watch?" Leigh looked up at me from his watch. And stretched his arms out proudly, one of his wristband's spikes glistening in the sun,

"Oh... um I have an.. private lesson with M Jackson in a little bit he said I'd receive a notice through my wristwatch in a little bit. So I'm waiting for it." I raised a questionable eyebrow.

"Private lessons? And since when did we start calling him Mr Jackson?" Leigh put his arms around his head in a proud sort of way and beemed back at me, doing his best to look humble

"yeah...he says that he reckons I have the power to be one of the most powerful people in this school, yeah maybe even more so than you Nav. You see... we thought at the start that all I could do was transform into a bear, but he thinks he see's that my power goes deeper than that, like I have the power to tap into any animals attributes, like for instance… I could grow dragon wings, and wolverine claws. Even more he says if I try really hard... I may be able to just instinctively tap into say... the strength of a gorilla; even without getting gorilla arms…I'm heaps excited! Oh and he told me to call him Mr Jackson, says he likes it more" I was even more jealous now. It seemed that all around me everyone's powers were growing and I was still the same, all this talk of ultimate power the professor baffled about, and all I could do with it was watch people excel past me. I suppose it's just the same as it was back in the hospital. Different situation with same parallels really. Now here I am with powers apparently beyond my imagination, and I can't do anything with them, but watch other people get stronger because I can't understand my abilities nor how to use them. And everyone one else is just growing. Same as when I stayed at the hospital. All I could do was lay there seething in pain, analysing every little thing I could wrap my mind around. Whilst people around me, got better, healed and moved on from the hospital facility in which I always called home. I looked and Leigh and tapped him on the shoulder encouragingly

"Wow… Dude that's really cool! Who would of though hey? I hope you learn to control it that well I really do" I was interrupted by a loud creak as the door to the hall where phoenix madden had set up home Since he had moved to the institute. How could someone need a whole hall as a place of residence? But as per usual, I just shrugged it off to do with something in his abilities. As it was always was in this place, Questioning things in a place that often defied physics itself. Was often a pointless exercise No matter how much I thrived on consistencies.

My space questions were soon answered; the hall was full of all matters of objects and weapons I had never seen before. One was something that resembled something quite like a lightsaber. To a hall fan, that nearly stretched over the entire roof That also mysteriously managed to tell the time. I've always hated things I couldn't understand. The hall was decked out with large round tables big enough to sit about six. All placed evenly around the hall, myself and the others all took a table near the front right hand corner of the room (easiest to avoid Mr. Madden's gaze we thought I noticed Andy, josh and Kane and that kid that could shoot chains in a table a ways from us. I heard from Shane from his seat, that one of his Asian girls knows him,

"they say his name's Ronny. He can also faze in and out of existence they call him "ghost"." Andy saw our group and noticed Shane. He fazed one arm his hard rock form And began to produce a boulder from his arm as well. Shane noticed as well and sneered back. He began to flicker a flame around his index finger in retaliation. Kane nudged Andy in the ribs. And Andy began to sit down. I had a suspicion to that there was more to that situation than I knew about. I leaned over and began talking to Linda about Leigh's new potential when suddenly the roomed was interrupted by a loud booming voice.

"VIGILENCE!" some kids jumped out of there chairs. I even saw josh exploded one of his hands off, and Kane managed to make his head invisible. The voice belonged to phoenix madden. The words "vigilance" was etched in ceaseless fire across the top of the room. Phoenix madden appeared to the side of the room and began to limp up the lecturing stable. He looked somehow a little different than usual. He had a new scar across his eye; his skin seemed more pale and beaded with sweat. And his left leg had a bit of limp to it As his black cloak billowed in his wake. We discussed his odd appearance among each others until phoenix made it to his speaking post

"As I was saying children Vigilance. Is top key to preventing any possible attack or hampering upon one's personal safety!" he spoke with an odd disdain for the subjects as if he despised all of us which was somehow different to the phoenix that spoke before, who didn't have a disdain more than a superiority complex

"As a matter of up most relevance, I bring to you the most recent of occurrences as case of point…just this morning. Poor Elizabeth Jones a.k.a "snakeskin" tried to escape this facility without staff help. She was decapitated mercilessly. You see there are certain…defences placed around this facility. Naturally for all you,delightful children's safety of course. This goes to prove in a round about, had young Miss Jones. Been vigilant and obeyed the parameters in which she was given in due course. She would be sitting here today, showcasing her delightful and utterly amazing power." I was shocked, I even felt a little sick, my head started to feel heavy... I couldn't believe it, Liz was dead. She was that girl so full of energy that helped me up when I passed out the other night. She had such a zest for life. So much so that she woke up early every morning for a run. I couldn't stand death. I had been around it all my life, in that horrible facility. People would come in. some wouldn't come out. This was even worse. I knew this girl, I liked this girl. I felt like I was going to burst. Something here didn't make sense here. Why would Liz try and escape this place. She loved this place. I thought to myself that I needed to think this over a little bit more there was something suspicious about these circumstances I couldn't pinpoint. Linda looked at me and saw I seemed particularly upset about this. She placed a comforting hand around my shoulder and began to comfort me, Leigh was to busy checking his watch periodically to notice. I began to discuss with Linda my suspicions about Liz's death. When Mr Madden began to speak again as he banged a walking stick that was hanged next to the speaking post, against the floor to get attention.

"Yes exactly! Now you see don't you? Isn't death a truly terrible thing? However it really does well to heighten your priorities doesn't it? Children If you have the means. I would like you to write down the one thing your thinking about right now. After this seminar is done I would like you too work your hardest to improve that ONE thing. But yet again I am wandering off the point. The professor has asked me here to give you some ideals and some of my wisdom against those that would wish to harm you in this world. I am sure you are all aware my prestigious reputation precedes me?" Most of us looked at each other, we had absolutely no clue who phoenix madden was. Besides a rather cruel demeanor'ed teacher and the upcoming coach of the duelling competition, however it appeared (by his own boastings) that he was some sort of famous superhero or something. This seemed even more uncanny the ideas of superheroes off fighting villains. It truly seemed quite preposterous. Even more so that everything seemed to matter that much less when weighed to Liz's death. What's worse was that this horrible man was trying to teach us some cruel lesson from Liz's death, as if to profit from it. It disgusted me. I looked up at him, with the same sort of sneering look he seemed to wear the entire time he had been in the hall. He looked somewhat confused and even angrier that his boast seemed to be unfounded.

"Yes, yes rank amateurs such as yourselves would never understand the hierarchy of our lets say, societies. Regardless Of your obvious lack of education, I'm here to discuss with you lets say evil forces. In this world there are some whom would seek to profit from our… abilities. There is one main evil in this world, known only as the organization. They seek to profit from our unusual abilities even extort it. There have been horrible reported cases of blood transfusion, and even fully controlled mercenaries towards their cause. However you need not concern yourself with these… dark forces they have yet to rear their head in about fifty years. Since many of us defeated them in a triumphant battle that I myself was key in instrumenting. There will always however be pointless rouge's on a meaningless quest for some sort of useless Endeavour hell bent on delusions of grandeur. However all that can be instructed and I can really teach you. Is always being vigilant! (He pointed to the still flaming letters burning at the top of the ceiling) and if these two unfortunate deaths have taught us anything and deaths of people close to you will teach you many things! Is that death is a perfect pin point for those things close to you. By no point am I advocating death here children. However I am telling you. Cherish these beautiful moments. For they are life's true focus You are all dismissed! Get out of here... and remember be ever vigilant!" I looked around, at my friends they all wore somewhat the same expression I imagined I did A look of utter disgust and a little bit of anger. I thought to myself that, phoenix's speech was appalling, he basically instructed us to cherish death and that the two girls death's were a wondrous privilege for us to behold. He appeared to have little care for people's personalities, or feelings, he seemed to see peoples as cattle or more so a means to an end. I looked up back at phoenix, and sneered at him. He stared me square in the eye with an unsettling glare and yelled out

"You! Keelan... wait back I will see you when everyone is gone!" Everyone at my table looked at me a bit strangely, as if they were as about as confused as I was. I wasn't really very interested in talking to such as man that regards death as a far-too-rare privilege. I begrudgingly sat in my chair. I stared into a piece of wood on the table boring my eyes into the table as if it was a drill. Phoenix strutted over towards me, still however with his limp. He pulled up a chair next to me and faced it backwards as he sat on it. He sized me up for a little bit then span my chair to face him, I assumed he wanted me to look at him while he was lecturing me, on what I wasn't sure. He smiled a cruel smile at me and began to speak in a patronizing tone.

"I must say, I've heard about you, silly rumours those aren't they? I heard you were so hopeless in battle that you had to cut yourself to win. Heard that other kid threw in the towel coz he felt sorry for you..." I felt angry, but more than anger I was confused. Here was a member of the institute's faculty, deliberately trying to get a rise out of me. I didn't exactly understand what he was trying to do. All I knew was that I wasn't going to give him what he wanted. I sat still and didn't say anything

"Its ok I didn't expect you to say anything, you're that type of person. I could imagine you would be the kind of person to fake an injury just for the attention now wouldn't you." He smiled again and flicked back a piece of his hair.

"This is all irrelevant. As you know I'm in charge of investigating the mysterious proceedings involving young pegahtini's death, I was wondering... well why did you kill her?, tell me do you find death such a privilege to behold like I do?" I… I couldn't believe it... Not only was he trying to link me to killing someone, killing someone! But even more he was trying to relate me to him, him! I felt angry, my blood began to boil again I couldn't stand it, I had to say something now

"You cant honestly believe I have anything to do with that! That's impossible! Just…" he seemed pleased with himself he chuckled and then began in a more berating tone:

"Admit it. Your weak, your making excuses. You killed her because you love death! Admit it Navar Keelan, you're a villain!" I couldn't stand it. I needed him to shut up, I couldn't stand it anymore, I was trying to deal with the death of these people already. Let alone this sadistic shell of a man in front of me. He began to laugh at me. It was eating at me. I needed it to end. I needed him to end! I curled my left hand into a fist, it felt warm and corrosive as my blood pumped through with every palpitation spewing more hatred around my system. I struck my fist towards his face. I needed to end his derisive laugh. It met his hand with little ease. He grabbed my wrist with his coarse hand and slapped it on the table on the right of me.

"Never try to hit a faculty member! For that, I'm going to give you means to remember it!" he placed his other hand on the top of hand, just a little in front of were he was holding it down. His hand turned into a long silver blade. He laughed and thrust the sword straight down on my hand, severing it from the wrist. The last thing I remember was the feel of the cool metal searing my hand from my wrist,

And his laughter. His cruel laughter.

CHAPTER 11

People…

Light. Light seeped in from all corners of my conscious. I could hear a odd wavering sound coming from somewhere in the distance. It sounded so far away, as If I could never hope touch it. Then something touched me. It was warm soft and gentle. It flowed through me like a comfortable energy it flowed through my joints, and cooled my blood. I woke up with a comfortable feeling. Like I had the best sleep of my life. Above me was a woman, She was a beautiful woman. She had caring eyes and feminine eyebrows. Her brown hair was tucked in to a business like bow in the top of her head. With a few bangs falling down the side of her face Framing It quite well. She smiled at me, and took her hand of my chest. She still had a little bit of a residual yellow glow in her hand. She stood up and offered me a hand that I sheepishly accepted. I really wasn't much aware of my surroundings and just what happened. I offered her my right hand, I didn't want to look at my left. I was too afraid to see the aftermath. I guessed she was the nurse I had heard about. It was at that point where I remembered what had happened! I got to my feet and saw the professor, Mr. Jackson ( who was looking quite infuriated) and phoenix madden staring somewhere in the distance doing his best to look disinterested. I tried to push the nurse back. This could be my chance to tell the professor! Maybe even get that asshole reprimanded. The nurse tried to hold me back. She held me around the chest while I struggled.

"look child There discussing something at the moment. Let them finish and then they will deal with you!" I struggled a little more. I didn't want phoenix to get his word in first. But there was nothing I could do. This nurse beside her obvious innocent appearance was unusually strong. I stopped resisting and she let me go. She patted me on the cheek and smiled. She did her best to stand between me and the others. I could hear most of the conversation anyway. Some of them were yelling pretty loud.

"What do you mean? I can't believe any of you are even suggesting he could. Its just-" Mr. Jackson was in a real temper. He was throwing his arms around. And had lost most of his usual calm and sophisticated persona the professor however was doing his best to calm down Mr Jackson. And appeal to phoenix's side as well. I could see he was in quite a hard spot. Their heated discussion continued:

"Look Jackson, calm down. Im sure this whole situation just unintentionally isolated out of control isn't that right phoenix?" Phoenix did his best to show a false sense of hurt and empathy and interjected before Mr Jackson could say anything;

"Why yes of course professor, naturally I would never intentionally hurt a student... That's just preposterous. I deeply apologize. You see I gather that because of my… Illustrious career, I'm always a little bit jumpy. Constant vigilance and all that, I assure you professor. This was a momentary lap in concentration. I offer you and young Navar my deepest condolences and surrender myself to you, for anything I can possibly do to repair this situation" he bent down in a submissive fashion long enough to show a civil obedience. He snuck me a look, grinned a little. And then slapped on a showy mask of concern and began to walk towards me.

"My dear, dear child. I do hope you are okay, I am deeply sorry for your loss. You have my eternal debt in your favour" he grasped me in his arms and gave me a sickening hug.

"I do hope my jumpiness has not caused you permanent harm" he pulled up the hand he maliciously cut off into his view. I was terrified. I didn't want to see a savagely severed bleeding stump sticking out where my hand should have been. I winced my eyes closed. My hand was just in front of me. I slowly opened my eyes. My hand was fine, as if was never cut off. Phoenix looked about as shocked at me. He threw my arm at my face and started yelling:

"What is this? This hand was severed… I... uh I saw it myself! Oh... how glad I am that your better my child. So very…glad" by this time the professor and my Jackson walked over. Mr. Jackson still had that hot flustered look in his face. He stormed over to me and brushed me aside gently and threw himself in front of phoenix as imposingly as he could

"You're damn bloody lucky; he's alright you bloody bastard Cutting of a student's hand! I don't care what the professor has to say. You're a damn coward you are. If it were up to me id have you disbanded, Maybe even stripped of your powers! Hero my assl. Phoenix ( he prodded his finger into phoenix's chest) madden you are a damn coward!" phoenix looked at the finger placed upon his chest with an utter amount of disdain. He gently removed this foreign object from his chest and stared back into Mr. Jackson's eyes as insulting as he could

"My dear Jackson Perhaps, had you had the experience I have had in you life, you may begin to understand my predicament here, had you ever fought yourself a villain, or had millions of people all wanting you dead, I ASSUME you would have some idea. But no. some clerative pencil pusher such as yourself could never understand now could you!" there was a clear amount of hate between these two. Possibly even a history of it. The professor soon stepped in between the men. And pushed them apart himself

"Please men, please. This is a clearly misunderstood situation. Phoenix has explained himself and apologized profusely, I have indeed heard your worries Jackson and I will look up into them in due time. Young Navar appears to be quite unharmed. And everyone is ok. Here. Now I will ask you once Mr. Jackson, Navar will you please kindly leave Mr. madden to his quarters. Nurse if you could please follow me. I have a report of a poor student who has just discovered his power is to allow himself to sustain a flame upon himself when set alight. However it still seems to hurt as if he was actually burning alive. Oh ho ho, some powers a just quite strange indeed aren't they! Mr. Keelan, I will meet with you in due time to discuss this situation, until this I shall bid you both good day oh And Mr. Keelan. I hear you have chosen to still compete in the institutes hero duelling competition. I bid you good luck." And with that the professor beckoned the nurse to his side and led himself out of the hall. Mr. Jackson looked round at me. And smiled a little

"Come on Navar. Let's get you out of here my boy. No doubt you don't wish to be the presence of this coward." He beckoned me towards him and together we walked out of phoenix's hall. Sneaking evil glances back at him every now and again. When we made it out to the hall a fair distance from Mr. Phoenix's hall Mr. Jackson broke the silence.

"I can't believe he did that, the nerve of that coward cutting the hand of a student! Why no matter of experience should be able to bring a man to have such a selective "lapse of concentration" tell me firstly how do you feel?" I was quite honoured by Mr. Jackson's empathy and caring. This was also the first time I even thought of my hand. I pulled it up to my face and tried to survey it. It still looked like my hand. I tried to feel it a little more. It felt a little hollow and strange, As if there were no bones in it at all. It was quite a curious feeling. I tried to feel my blood pumping through it. Like I could usual feel my blood pumping through my body if I concentrated enough. I couldn't. I didn't really know what I was feeling. I tried to remember what happened. Maybe he didn't actually cut me. Or maybe it wasn't the full way through and my hand repaired itself. I started to get a little angry. I remembered his hand forming a smooth metal blade, and coming down upon mine. I thought more about the blade, how it felt cutting through my skin And before my eyes. Where my hand once was, was a crude red blade, I remembered this once happening on my orienteering competition. I was stumped; I really couldn't explain any of it. The blade felt light, and flexible, but as strong as any metal I've ever felt. I looked up to my Jackson confusedly. He looked back at me away from his glance at what used to be my hand and shrugged.

"Im about as confused as you are m'boy but I'd gather this has to do with some sort of extension of your power. Remarkable I wonder. Do you remember you doing this at your orienteering competition When you pinned young Shane on the floor. Both your hands resembled blades quite like this one you have on your hand now, curious… do you think you could try and morph it into something different perhaps Try thinking of say, a claw?" I looked back at where my hand once was and concentrated on the long curved blood like blade. I tried to concentrate; I imagined my hand turning into something like a crab claw. And before both myself and Mr. Jackson the blade in front of me melted into an odd amount of blood red like gloop and then It raised again forming an odd pool of blood defying gravity. It formed itself within seconds into a sharp red claw. one side larger than the other. I clacked the claw together and it made a sound as if they were claws themselves. Mr. Jackson smiled and laughed a little. He looked at me with a renewed vigour he tapped his hand in a indication to try and turn my hand, back into a hand. I concentrated again. And this time it came a little easier. And quickly my hand turned back into the hand I always knew it to be. It was a seamless different. It looked every bit like my hand. I could spot no visible difference at all. Mr. Jackson laughed again and smiled. He cupped me on the shoulder and pulled me closer to him

"Haha! My boy I think that coward may have given us a blessing in disguise. I want you to focus on trying to control that hand of yours a little better. See what you can get out of it you know. We have the first hero duelling competition, the competition starts on Sunday. I want you well prepared. We'll show that coward phoenix a thing or two when we verse his lion faction. It is indeed a shame young Leigh didn't register though. I dare say he would have been a great deal of help. Well my boy. Off to your dorm. I have some matters that need attending. Ile see into you when I see you in class next. Go on scoot." He pushed me away gently, waved And began to walk the opposite way.

I was a little stumped at what to do. I wasn't sure what time it was I cursed the stupidity that our wristwatches still couldn't tell the time. There was somebody next to me, carrying some books. I noticed one of them was written on it "world domination plans" he wore a green shirt. Had short curly brown hair and bright green eyes, and a round face. I turned to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey uh excuse me…um do you have the time? The kid jumped a little and dropped his book on the floor that said "world domination plans" he picked it up and fidgeted with his bag, shoving most of the books in his already packed backpack. He looked up to me and smiled and nodded

"Me have the time? Ahahahah I always have the time my friend. I'm Roden, code name is "hacker" I can interface, like talk with machines... say what can you do? Oh sorry I'm getting off the point, sure the time is (he placed his finger on the wrist watch). And more then instantaneously it flashed the time in big red letters. It said 2:00 pm. It then quickly flashed back to saying "hacker" and a serpent logo on the bottom. I was quite shocked I didn't think these watches could tell the time

"I um, I mean. How did you do that? These things can't tell the time can they? I mean I'm not even sure what these things can do" Roden laughed and grinned at me, his eyes sparkled with a mischievous glow. I got the impression I got on to the topic of something he really liked talking about

"You would be surprised, what these things can do! There absolutely complex. They almost border on A.I it's uncanny. They have unfathomable amounts of storage and communication capabilities furthermore they can… Well there just great!" I could see he wanted to continue but I guessed I looked a little bored. He laughed a bit. And said he had to go meet some friends. And he ran off towards the snake dorm at least I thought it was the snake dorm, I never really knew where the snake dorm was. I was a little tired, and I really didn't know what to else to do. I needed to sit myself down and wrap my head around all the stuff that's happened. I walked outside and placed myself against a tree. I looked at my hand. I thought about it. In some ways Mr. Jackson was right. For the first time I had the ability to actually use my power actively, flaunt it even. Possibly even a little like Shane. I fashioned my hand firstly in a cruel sharpened claw like version of mine. It easily gouged out a piece of the tree behind me. Secondly I tried to get some knuckle claws. Like that wolverine guy in those x-men comics. It worked as easily as me thinking about it. And with little ease I could retract and withdraw my claws. It was quite cool. I rested my head by leaning it against the tree stump behind me. I tried to think of what happened. How two people have died one who appeared to been stabbed, The other who apparently wandered out of the compound without permission. However un-realistic this seemed to me. I wondered if somehow these killings were connected. Like maybe there was some sort of evil plot. Or maybe a school serial killer, I all seemed too unreal for me to even think about. I would however ask some of my friends what they thought, perhaps they would hold, perhaps a better perspective on these elusive circumstantial circumstances. I opened my eyes and looked around me, the sun was shining brightly in the middle of the sky and was beaming down a gentle warmth. I felt something warm around my legs. And then a meow, It was Kovu! I put my hand to my side to meet him. He curled up around my palm and went back to sleep. Even before I could ask the kind of questions I really could. Like how he knew where he was or where he had been. Or even who else he had been affectionate too. I closed my eyes again. I was quite tired. I drifted off to a little slumber.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes; I didn't think I really think I was asleep. I think I just drifted off a little. I wondered to myself how long I had fallen asleep. Before me was angel. She was wearing a white mini skirt and a tight black top with a stripy white and black scarf, Her wings were still outstretched. They even looked a little longer. I sized them up. They were at least a meter and a half long. Way longer than when last saw them. Angel smiled again, her wings folded back into her back and she nodded to me

"Yeah... I think they've gotten a bit bigger too" she sat next to me and lent against the tree I could feel her warm shoulder against mine. It felt warm and comfortable. I smiled at her and shifted myself so I could see her. Angel smiled again and started to ask me something:

"Hey Nav, how are you? I haven't spoken to you since before. Hey! What did Mr. madden want with you?" I looked down at the ground. I really didn't wanna relive that. How that bastard provoked me into an attack.

"He um... well to be honest, he wanted to ask me some questions." I looked at the ground and pulled out a tuft of grass were Kovu was lying before, where he was now I didn't know. Angel looked at me empathically. Her blue eyes sparkled And her blonde hair, while a little windswept, still looked perfect.

"Questions… questions about what?" asked angel as gently as she could

"Oh, well he seemed to think, well he seemed to think I had something to do with pegahtini's murder" angel looked really shocked she placed her hand on mine and looked into my eyes a bit more so our eyes met perfectly.

"How could you possibly have anything to do with that? I don't understand what he has to go on at all. Nav, your not a killer, your wouldn't even hurt a fly, in fact I don't think you would want to anyway." I couldn't help but blushing, it was really flattering and in a sort of way that I was also embarrassed. What did she think I was, some sort of wuss that couldn't protect anyone? I blushed some more I looked at the ground and sheepishly clawed at the grass.

"Gee, thanks angel, that's really flattering. I really appreciate it. I really do. But hey don't think I couldn't I could you know, I mean… I'm strong you know!" angel smiled a little bit and even managed to chuckle in an odd way. She leant towards me. And placed both of her hands and moved a little closer:

"Oh Nav, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you're just; well you're a beautiful person. Anybody that could get to bring a cat into here has to be special. All your friends really adore you, and I've never seen you try to bully anyone. You're always friendly to everyone that talks to you. And you're open to accept absolutely anybody." I blushed again and looked towards one of angels hands placed on my face. I placed one of my hands over hers. I moved in closer as did she. We were moving our faces closer into a kiss. My heart was beating faster than it ever had. I thought it was going to explode out my chest. And yet everything in my body was pushing me towards her. I could feel her forehead on mine when suddenly she stopped.

"Oh my, Nav. Are you still wearing the same clothes you had the first day you came here! You don't have any more clothes do you!? I tell you what. After the competition tomorrow I'm going take you clothes shopping ok I'm not taking no as an answer! I'm going right now to ask permission, I'le see you tomorrow Nav. Oh and by the way, call me Nikki" angel got up and kissed me on the cheek, her wings folded back out of her back and she started floating up towards the other end of the compound. She waved to me and she crossed behind one of the large domes of this massive compound. My stomach retched inside itself. I couldn't figure out what the hell just happened. I needed some advice. I didn't know anything about girls. I hardly knew anything about anything let alone girls. I heard some of the doctors sometimes joke about them being the most complicated beings on the earth. I was totally over my head, everything just seemed too much. I leaned back against the tree and clenched my fist into a spike ball in anger. I needed help. Then from the other side of the quad I saw Linda. She was wearing a short leather jacket over a black shirt with a gothic-ish looking rose with a plaid Scottish looking mini skirt. She saw me and smiled and waved, and walked over to me and sat with her legs folded next to me and smiled.

"Hey Navvy how you doing what you doing out here? I think Shane and Kyle are looking for you; they wanted to get in some practice before tomorrow. I just dropped off Leigh off to one of his lessons, he's really enjoying them. He's getting so much stronger Nav. But hey, you look down, what's up Navvy?" I gave a Linda a desperate look and sunk down more into the ground and sighed:

"Oh I dunno… try everything" Linda looked at me with a bit of a confused smile.

"Spill it Keelan, start with the first problem. And I'le try and do my best to help you. Im good at understanding things, you should know that Navvy" I rolled my eyes And stared up to one of the clouds floating above me.

"Um ok, first? Im a suspect in the murder of that pegahtini girl's death" Linda looked shocked and put her hand up to her mouth in shock.

"How, that's not even possible… I mean. That's just stupid. Wait is that what Mr. Madden wanted with you? To tell you that you were a suspect in the murder of that poor girl? Oh Nav You wouldn't hurt anyone. Does he have any proof?" I never really thought about if he actually had any proof, I always just imagined he was just a malicious asshole.

"I suppose I mean, I guess I did pass out that night. Maybe he thought my passing out in the hall out of dormitories was a little suspicious…" Linda looked at me and placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Nav, it couldn't have been you. You're so gentle, you wouldn't hurt anyone. What else did Mr. madden say, did he do anything to you? To think I used to admire him. You know I was reading about him in the library, he has had quite a history it seems. Oh but I'm trailing, what else did he say?" I really never expected to be talking about this, this early. But I decided I had very little to gain by keeping what happened in there a secret. I looked up at her and pulled my new hand up to her eye level.

"What happened? You mean other than that bastard chopping my hand off!" and with that I formed my hand into a crude matter of shapes and forms. Linda looked absolutely appalled. She shook and grabbed my hand when I formed it back into a hand. She examined it. Looking it up and down pulling and pinching it when she was done she let my hand go and looked back up at me

"I don't get it. It looks exactly like your hand now, but you can do all those crazy things with it. How is this possible Nav?" I shrugged and placed my hand back on the ground and pulled out another piece of grass with my hand.

"I dunno, I guess it has something to do with my powers I suppose. I don't know. But in a positive spin on it. I at least have something to show for my powers now." Linda nodded a little bit

"Yeah I suppose you have something you can show off a little now cant you. Just promise me you won't get all stuck up like Shane is. He's such a pompous ass sometimes." I knew where Linda was coming from with this. But I also knew Shane's perspective of the situation. And it really was just him totally being misunderstood.

"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe Shane's just proud of his powers" Linda looked at me for a little bit after thinking to herself for a little bit.

"I suppose I never really thought it about that way Nav. Anyway, that's the first problem, what else is up?" I hoped that maybe I put a better perspective in Linda's brain, the only other problem I could think of at the moment, besides a looming competition, it didn't worry me nearly as much as what was supposed to be happening afterwards. Nikki taking me to go clothes shopping it all seemed way too surreal, let alone calling her Nikki still seemed strange to me. Let alone spending time with her…clothes shopping I honestly didn't think I could handle it. I put my hands toward my nose bridge and closed my eyes in stress.

"Worse more... I think I may have, I think I have a date" I slid down the tree I was leaning on till I was nearly lying down. And I sighed. Linda on the other hand seemed quite ecstatic. She was bouncing on the spot.

"Oh my god really!? I know, it's that angel girl isn't it! I knew she liked you, I just knew it. Ask Leigh I told him! What are you gonna do, where are you gonna go?" I wasn't quite sure how to react. Her reaction was so different to my desperation I was thrown quite aback.

"Oh, um. She wants to take me to get some new clothes. We kind of almost kissed as well." Linda placed her hand on her lips in a shocked expression, and then punched me playfully over the shoulder as I was sitting up again. I blushed and looked away. I wasn't used to any of these feelings. Heck I still wasn't used too much of anything.

"Wow you almost kissed? that's so cool and you said your going to do what again, clothes shopping? That's so cool Navvy! Im so glad for you" I decided to bite the bullet on this one. I needed help, and there really wasn't anyone else I would rather ask than Linda anyway. She was always so happy and intelligent. She really was a great person.

"Hey Linda, well… you're a girl! Um… well… I don't, I don't have a clue what the hell to do, to be honest!" Linda laughed, laughed a little too much if you asked me. I folded my arms and looked the other way. Finally when Linda stopped laughing, she placed her hand on one of my legs.

"Look Navvy, you're a wonderful person, just be yourself. Try to be a little happier, and stop getting lost in your thoughts all the time… you do that so often it makes you seem like a recluse. Other than that try and hold her hand a little. And just try and find something that you can both talk about" I shrugged my shoulders and raised an eyebrow Linda. I was about to rebut Linda's comments when her wristwatch beeped. She looked up at it and got up from the grass.

"I got to go Navvy, Leigh's almost finished and he wants me to meet him when he's done. Don't worry Navvy you'll do fine If I don't see you before. Good luck at the competition tomorrow!" Linda ran off towards the entrance back into the facility. By this time I guessed it was about five' o clock Linda and Leigh would be off doing whatever it was they did. Shane and Kyle were obviously training. And in all honesty I just plain and simple had enough of this day. I walked myself off to my dormitory to lie on my bed slowly falling asleep.

CHAPTER 12

Champions

Today was the day of the first contest. I hadn't really any idea what to expect. Other than I was going to be over my head. Even worse was that I was supposed to be going to going on a date afterwards. The competition, was supposed to start at 11, which was all I knew. However most of my questions were answered when I woke up. My wristband had something different on it than usual; today it read "_blood, you are due in the auxiliary auditorium at 10:30am to begin competitions with lion faction" _I rubbed my eyes with my hands And opened them. The time was 9:00 am. The door opened it was Nikki; she smiled and walked towards me.

"Ah I was hoping to find you awake. I gotta meet some of my friends. Were gonna try and get some good seats for today. But I just wanted to wish you good luck and say everything's still all good for later today and about time to. I think those clothes are starting to get smelly!" Nikki kissed me on the cheek. And jogged gently out of the room I really couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to get up. I patted Kovu and shifted myself out of the bed. Everyone else was still asleep. I made my way to the bathroom, stripped off and had a warm shower. After I got out and dressed I looked at myself in the mirror. My strong green eyes stared back at me. I wasn't as thin as I was before and my skin was a darker tone than I remember it. It was no longer the pale white I remember it being. My hair was a little longer but the usual style, it was dark brown. Spiked up at the top (still defying gravity) and messy down the side's framing my face in an odd sort of manga look, one side of my fringe (longer than the others) framed the side of my face and met its end somewhere near my right eye. My whole body had more of a definite muscular look. I ran my hand over the arm that had the severed hand. I had clear muscle definition. I even had clear biceps. I thought to myself what a wonderful thing my body had made itself into ever since it started healing itself. I still couldn't fathom that the only problem with my body was that my blood just needed other sources to draw upon. It was constantly feeding upon my body for different sources of variation. I couldn't believe how simple it was. I tried to push it out of my mind. Whatever my past, this was my present I needed to focus today I was going to face four people all who wanted to get the best of me. And I still really didn't know how to use my powers on a large scale other than my isolated hand; my powers were still beyond my control. I heard the door behind me open. It was Shane and Kyle. They looked relieved to see me.

"Nav dude we've been looking for you. We hadn't seen you since yesterday, we were trying to get you in the training we had yesterday. You didn't miss much though, just went through some tactics and practiced our powers a little. Oh hey! What ended up happening with Mr. madden"

I leaned against the counter I was looking at myself to face Kyle and Shane. I relayed to them what happened with phoenix, from his accusations to his cutting my hand. At the end of it they were both shocked and confused.

"I don't get it Nav, if your hand got chopped off, why you still have it?" asked Shane I figured the easiest way to answer it was to show them so I held up my severed hand. And fashioned it into a cruel claw like mockery of my own hand it was blood red and had that same black slimy sinew running over it in sections that my whole body had that time I fully transformed. Both of them were quite shocked, Kyle spoke first:

"Wow… that's heaps cool! I wish I could do that!" Shane lifted his hand equal to mine. And bathed it in flame, and winked at me

"Haha who can flaunt it now" I smiled and returned my hand back to my hand. Kyle suggested we head to the auxiliary auditorium a little early so we could work something out towards a plan of some sort. On the way we discussed what phoenix Madden's motivation could be behind his odd behaviour

"Well maybe. You know just doesn't like you?" suggested Kyle, as he was about three steps ahead of both of us.

"Nah I reckon, he's probably jealous of you, you know. You have more renown in this school than he does. And he's supposed to be some sort of amazingly famous superhero" remanded Shane. In a funny sort of way it almost seemed a little true. In some small way I had become a little bit of a celebrity at this school. Nearly everyone knew who I was. And even more had ideas of my powers and what I should be doing with them. Whereas phoenix was more than basically unknown in this facility I was quite sure he was used to everybody knowing his name, and everyone doting attention upon him.

"You know Shane. I think you're probably on to something there. But we'll see how famous I am after this competition, hey did I tell you guys I think I have a date?" both Shane and Kyle stopped dead in their tracks, looked at each other. Then at me And at the exact same time said:

"What, with who?" I blushed and pulled my arms around my head sheepishly, I imagined I was wearing quite a cheesy grin as well.

"Um with err…Nikki, I mean angel. She's taking me clothes shopping. I have been wearing the same clothes ever since I got here." They both looked a little disheartened. Shane smiled a cheesy smile back and slapped me across the shoulder

"Ah Navvy that's not a date, haha she just feels sorry for you! She can smell you from the other side of the room is all!" Kyle and Shane both laughed at me. And I couldn't do much but throw them both an evil stare. By the time they had stopped laughing at me we had reached the auxiliary auditorium, our wristwatches had a counter on them as well as the information on where were supposed to be. There was a roar of sound coming from the hall. Shane Kyle and I looked at each other took a deep breath and walked in. there were people everywhere. It wasn't quite full there were still some seats empty but most were filled. People were seated in there house groups. In one large black stand, a large banner was draped from the roof. It had a raven printed on it outlined in purple the raven had its wings outstretched, and again one of its feathers was missing. On the other side of the hall was a large yellow stand full of about 200 hundred people. Above the yellow stand was a large banner with a lion on it was outlined in red, behind us. Near where we were walking towards was a large green stand filled with an innumerable amount of people as well. Its banner was green with a serpent on it; the serpent was outlined in silver. And somewhere off the distance were some of the staff. I noticed the professor talking to that large fat man we had for superhero identity class. I noticed phoenix. But he stole me an evil glance and then stomped off towards the lion bleachers. From around the corner boomed Jackson Holmes. He scooped us three in his arms and began to walk us over towards the change rooms. When we got there, he closed the door. And the loud noise of the crowd was silenced. Jackson Holmes was dressed in a smart brown pinstripe suit with a black tie. His hair as per usual was tied back in a neat pony tail and his spectacles sat comfortably on his nose he had since curiously shaved off the beard he was wearing when I first met him, I wondered why this was the first time I actually noticed.

"Children how good to see you, I assume your all ready for today's battle. Err competition, today of course against the Lion Faction. I went through this with most of this last night; I will however try to enlighten you all on a bit more definite facts. Now that we have our full team with us, were up against the lion faction, four members actually. Two of them are in our power exploration class. You may know them as boom boy or the kbam kid and the ginger ninja, or otherwise known as Joshua cook and Kane sugarton. I wouldn't worry about them really. Kane's powers aren't all that offensive really. And that other boy can barely control his own outbursts of explosions let alone weaponize them. However I hear the other two can be quite tough opponents; firstly there's this boy called ghost. He has the ability to sprout chains from his wrists and render himself in corporeal at times; however it seems he can only do so when his chains are retracted. So just force him to use his chains to attack you and he is vulnerable. I believe the Childs name is Ronald Platt. And lastly is possibly the most offensively powered in their team. The child known as "obelisk" he can harden his body to a rock like substance, and he appears to be able to form rocks and boulders from his body as well. He's the one to watch out for. However Im going to gather, that he can't be very fast. I suggest young Kyle that you take this one. Regardless that I hear he has quite the dislike for Shane here because of some unknown altercation. All this aside Shane you need to focus on someone else. You can't melt rock! I suggest you focus on ghost. And Navar, I'm going to suggest you focus On josh and Kane. There powers are not exactly too offensive, and you should be able to handle it even with your low grasp of your powers. Lastly I want you to remember, that were in raven faction. Were here because our powers are meant to grow, were here because we have the potential to be stronger. Lion factions, a more of get what you see house. All understood? Good! Do your best out there. And remember if at any time you feel in over your head. Don't hesitate to give up" funny he said that. I kind of felt out of my head already nevertheless all that was left to do was wait.

The roar of the crowd was intense. It almost shook the doors to our change rooms. We had to get changed into our competition uniforms. Ours were black pants with a black sleeveless jumper. With a purple raven logo on the back of it I laughed a little to myself; this was the first set of clothes I had worn, other than my other ones. The counter on our wrist watches was counting down to the last seconds. I had one last thought before I walked out there and most probably got pummelled a thousand times into submission;

"Hey Mr Jackson there's only three of us. And they have four, what's the deal with that?" Kyle and Shane looked at me, nodded and then looked questioningly towards Mr. Jackson he chuckled and boomed his voice over the increasingly loud crowd

"Well… I brought this up with the faculty, they seemed quite assured that we were more than capable of dealing with one extra" he snuck an extra look and me, and shuffled us out into the hall. We stepped out of the door and walked towards the battle grounds. I snuck a look at Shane and Kyle. Shane was flicking his hands on and off on fire, with a rather mischievous smile, Kyle on the other hand seemed to be somewhere near the place I was, he had a worried look on his face, he was rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms. I looked at them and Kyle went to say something. But I couldn't hear it over the roar of the crowd as we stepped onto the floor. There was a black line on the floor where we were supposed to stand I guessed. About 10 meters on the other side of the hall was a yellow line, where I assumed the lion faction's team was supposed to stand. In the middle of the hall stood phoenix madden. He wore a red cloak this time. And it had yellow pinstripes over it. With a regal lion printed on the back. I looked around me. The crowds were going wild. Everyone was yelling over everyone else it was impossible to individualize anyone's voice over the ceaseless sound that was coming from everyone. It made me feel really small and scared, I felt like I was a mouse that was just about to be hit with a hammer or being lead into a mouse trap. From the middle of the room echoed phoenix's voice

"Ladies and gentlemen please raise your hands in applause for the…raven team. From left to right we have, blood, the blue flame, and the kitsune! Wish them luck ladies and gentlemen (and from under his breath so very few people could hear it) there gonna need it" the crowd erupted even louder than before, most of it came from the raven factions stand, their applause and yelling was so loud that it shook there entire stadium. Then from the other side of the stadium appeared the lion team. From the left was josh. He looked very nervous I saw him take a gulp of air and accidentally explode his Adam's apple. I laughed a little. But his Adam's apple grew straight back; their uniforms were almost the same as ours. They had red stripe in the middle of their shirts and it was a yellow on the other sides. Their shirts were long sleeved as opposed to ours which were sleeveless. They were hooded as well. Next to josh was Kane; he looked quite smug and was waving to the crowd proudly. He didn't even notice that he accidentally disappeared his hand. Next to Kane was who I assumed was "ghost" he had short black hair that he pushed his fringe down over his face. He was wearing his hood up. And it looked like he was still listening to music. His eyes were a warm hazel colour and he hand a small angular face. He was a little shorter than the others but he wasn't really paying attention to most of them. He was just listening to his music. Next to ghost was Andy he was thundering along looking his best to look intimidating, his stare was fixed almost exactly on Shane, as was Shane fixed on his. I still had no idea what was going on between those two. But I had a sneaking suspicion that neither Shane nor Andy were gonna stick to the plan given by there teacher. Phoenix clapped himself and began to speak again.

"Ladies and gentlemen can we please welcome the illustrious team lion! Featuring the awesome talents of (from left to right) boom boy, the ginger ninja, ghost and obelisk!" the lion stand went wild. They started banging the tune to "we will rock you" with there hands. Phoenix laughed and began to join in a little. Shortly after he hushed the crowd and began to speak again.

"Ok combatants on my signal. Your inhibitors will be taken off and you WILL be able to attack each other, you'll feel a slight sting on around your wrists while this happens. I ask you to keep it clean. And if anyone surrenders, stop your attacks immediately (he snuck an evil look at me)…ON YOUR MARKS STUDENTS…GO!" I felt a slight sting rush up my arm and I guessed our inhibitors had been lifted. I had little time to think about what to do. Shane erupted himself in flame that burst out almost a meter away from him, and then receded around his body in close proximity. He thrust himself at quite a impressive speed fist first at Andy. I was quite sure he didn't hear Kyle say "stick to the plan Shane!" Kyle looked at me shrugged and then rushed towards ghost at almost eye blinking speed. Before I knew it I felt a thump on the top of my head. It was Kane. He was invisible he made himself visible and appeared before me. He pulled out a sword. Waved at me and began to attack me with it. I had little time to react; I turned my hand into a large axe. Which shocked Kane a little, Kane lunged towards me with his sword. I raised my axe in defence. It met his sword directly. It felt odd like somehow I knew my axe was stronger than his sword. I slammed my axe towards him and his sword met it defensively somewhere near his torso. Then from my left jumped josh, he landed his hand around the shaft of my axe and yelled out:

"Kblah!" his hand felt very hot and volatile and then his hand exploded taking my axe with it. Blood red gloop splattered everywhere and josh smiled as his hand re grew. He did look tired however. Kane saw this as his chance and flipped over behind me, assisting himself with his flying abilities. He went invisible and the last thing I felt from him was a slice down my back from his sword. I screamed out in pain and fell to my knees. My back felt like it was on fire. But sooner than later that wondrous feeling took over as my blood seeped out of the gash in my back. I could feel my body being eclipsed by the blood suit. It crept from my back around to my chest then over my arms, before I knew it my entire body was encased in this blood suit. I felt stronger and more powerful I felt like I could see out of billions of eyes over my body, felt like I could do anything, it was different this time. I felt like I could control it more than last time. I focused on the visage of that red looking bug eyed creature I transformed into last time. I could feel my suit hardening around me, tightening my muscles, increasing my every sense receptor. I could feel my back moving and shifting with little tentacles. I got up slowly and pulled my arms into the front of my face. They were blood red. They shimmered and moved under that odd black sinew that seemed to encase my hand and it seemed my body at other points all over my body. My hands resembled that cruel claw that I sometimes turned my hand into. I laughed and felt my mouth. It was cruel and full of many teeth. My face felt odd. Slimy but the same time hard as a rock on odd transparent white membrane ran up near my eyes and trailed off to the side of my head. I could only imagine what I looked like but I assumed it was probably quite frightening. I had little left to do but enjoy it. I saw Kane and josh step back cautioningly look at each other and at the both time mouth a loud

"Uh oh!" I thrust my hands forward as a smiled and my hands stretched forward like a torrent of blood colored power. They stretched all the way till I slammed them against the wall at the end of the hall, about 4 meters away. Kane tried his best to use his sword to cut himself free. But to no avail, every time he cut something two more tentacles took a better hold of him. Josh looked a little more desperate and looked as if he was trying to compose himself. When they slammed against the wall Kane yelped and slumped towards the ground. I assumed he was out cold. Josh smiled a bit and concentrated as hard as he could and yelled out

"KBLAH!" His whole body erupted in a searing heat and then he exploded sending out a shockwave about a meter wide. My outstretched hand flew into hundreds of directions. I concentrated a little harder and every piece that was blown apart turned into a spiked tentacle and rushed towards josh. He pressed a button on his wrist watch that must have been the surrender button coz all the tentacles met a transparent faded orange shield. I retracted my hands back to myself. There cruel claws twitched with strength and uncertainty. I turned my attention to the other two. On the other side of the hall was Kyle and ghost. Kyle was running around ghost doing his best to land an attack he was flipping and cart wheeling and black flipping quite effortlessly obviously using his tail as an anchor to keep his balance. Ghost was still listening to his music and had his hood on. He was sending his chains out in anarchic areas trying to strike Kyle by a fluke. And then quickly retracting them when Kyle got closer to him, so he could become in corporeal so Kyle's strikes and blows would easily flow through him, I could see that there battle was going no where fast. Shane and Andy's battle was far more intense. They were really getting into it. Andy was throwing small child size boulders at Shane. And Shane was using a fire blast on them to slow them down and change their direction. Shane really seemed to have his flying down pact. He was swooping Andy overhead and from every different angle. Mr. Jackson was right though. Andy really was quite slow in his hardened form and Shane did have the manoeuvrability over him. However every blow he was landing was doing very little if even nothing. Both battles seemed to be as hopeless as each other. I decided to help Shane. Even though his pride would probably be shot, I figured Andy was the biggest threat. I looked up into the roof and slinged my way up there. There I was adhered to the top of the roof Upside down. I used my new eyes to asses the situation, I zoomed in on them, they were still fighting quite ferociously; however Shane was starting to slow down and lose energy, I guessed that all the fire he was producing was really tiring. I really didn't have any full idea how I could help. I decided I'd just wing it, I let go of the roof, slinged two tentacles from my shoulders so I was hanging off like a harness. I swang myself towards Andy and pushed off on the apex of the swing. I was flying towards him feet first with quite an impressive velocity. Within seconds my feet landed on Andy's shoulders. It did nothing; if anything I was the one who got hurt. I felt my ankles burst. My shins break and my knees collapse. Amazingly as soon as they burst they were instantly healed. I rode the recoil back flipped and landed spider-like next to Shane.

"Thought you could use some help" my voice sounded odd. I felt my mouth move but it was an odd echoed version of my voice, it sounded more synthesized and evil. Shane faced me. Fully alight Shane was an impressive sight; his entire body was covered in burning living blue flame. His hair itself was on fire and up in spikes. His eyes glowed blue and had smouldering blue flame filing out it. He opened his mouth to speak and it was an odd black hole with white teeth and a white light where his throat would be.

"I can handle this Navar. Go help Kyle! This ones mine!" he said angrily and threw his hand in the direction of Kyle. His arms creating a wake of flame as he thrust them.

"Look Shane. I know you have some sort of vendetta against this guy, but I was watching you. You can't beat this guy, he's made of rock! YOU CANT MELT ROCK!" Shane flamed himself in a higher radius and scowled at me

"I CAN DAMN WELL TRY!" he threw his hands together towards Andy and a massive fire wall proceeded it. I yelled back at Shane

"He has to have a weakness. We need to exploit it…Shane we have to work together!" Shane ended his fire wall and the flames around his body got a little smaller, he was looking even more exhausted. Finally he submitted

"Fine! But I doubt even you can find a weakness. Dude's made of rock! " the fire blast pounding Andy finally receded, he walked towards us a little with his thundering footsteps

"if you two are done talking about me. I think I have a battle to win here" his voice was deep and booming. He threw up his rocky arms above his head and began forming another boulder. It started as a pebble and began rolling around its own axis building mass exponentially. Shane looked at me. Still quite angry, his chest was moving in very large movements. I could tell he was quite tired. I was trying to figure out a weakness. I noticed his boulders. And I had an idea.

"Shane, watch for my signal. I have an idea!" he nodded in agreement. And turned his attention back to Andy, his boulder was almost the half the size of him. Exactly what I wanted, he laughed through his rocky mouth and thrust the boulder directly down towards me. It slammed on the floor. Sent a tiny shockwaves through the floor and cracked a small crater in the ground. the boulder ran towards me. I jumped high into the air I back flipped and twirled a little in the air so I would be facing Andy when I landed. Tentacles sprouted from my body and grabbed a hold of the massive boulder. It stopped moving and was well in my grasp. I began to sail towards earth. I hadn't even landed. In fact I was about half way to landing when I yelled out to Shane

""Shane light the boulder on fire!" I landed with a thud. Half kneeling, the tentacles behind my back recoiled from the inertia and I thrust the massive boulder straight at Andy. Shane quickly got the idea. And bathed the boulder in flame, it slammed into Andy with tremendous force straight on his chest, he was sent recoiling at least five meters down the hall. He slowly got up. He yelled and rolled the boulder off his chest. When he got up, it was exactly how I planned. His chest was cracked; there was a gaping hole in his chest revealing a more soft membrane behind it. Andy didn't notice Shane and I as we smiled. We looked at each other and nodded. Shane pulled an odd magician like pose and sent a stream of blue flame towards the hole. I took the hint myself. I fashioned both my arms into thin spear like blades. And thrust myself toward the hole spinning like an acrobat, only narrowly avoiding the flame blast. I imagined from on lookers it would have been quite a spectacle A beam of blue flame with a spinning red-like Spiderman twirling through the air. I landed and my blades easily penetrated the soft membrane-ey substance. I pulled my blades out and flipped backwards landing closely near Andy, as the barrage of flame pummelled him with flame. Andy screamed in pain and soon after fell to the ground as he turned back to his new human form. Shane stepped over him as he was clearly about to black out and in a very berating tone said:

"Feel the burn bitch!" Andy was out cold. And shortly after that odd transparent shield encased him, and what look like healing energy was travelling to his wounds and afflictions, I assumed this was how people were healed after the battle. I looked at Shane just as his flame aura subsided. He fell to his knees in exhaustion. And looked at me

"I could of had him you know… it was only coz of my heat that, that shell cracked...Given that. Nav you did heaps well bro. but we got to help Kyle…" Shane looked utterly exhausted he could barely stand up. I felt my body ripple in this blood like suit and my hands returned back to their cruel claw like shape. I turned my attention to Kyle. He was slowing down. And ghost wasn't any closer to landing a hit on Kyle than Kyle was on him. I had a plan I looked at Shane and I gestured that I was going to help Kyle he nodded and stood up slowly and began to run over there in his normal body. No flames wisping out of anywhere. I slung a line up to the roof and webslinged closer to ghost And landed about 30 seconds before Shane who muttered something like "show-off" as Kyle ran up to us, he took a couple of seconds to catch his breath, and yelled out

"I need a weapon! I have absolutely nothing offensive I can do in here but punch and kick!" I laughed and nodded at Kyle. We all glanced at each other for a few seconds. It was me who broke the silence.

"Ok so he can't faze out if his chains are extended right? Ile draw the attack to me. And then you guys attack him ok!" Shane and Kyle nodded. Shane took in a deep breath and set just his hands on fire. Kyle ran behind ghost as to not distract him from hitting me. Shane did the same. Ghost was still listening to music. He smiled at me and thrust a chain towards me, It was fast and intense; they were about as think as my fist and it was flying directly at me. I flipped side ways and used a tentacle shot from my torso to push me directly on top of the chain. I changed my hand into something resembling a large tent pick. And slammed it into the chain so he couldn't retract it, ghost was shocked. He pulled his earphones out of his ears and yelled at me

"Hey no fair" I smiled at him and tilted my head towards him

"Sorry buddy…nothing personal. Guys now!" Evidently Shane and Kyle had worked something out themselves, because Kyle was running around in a circle creating a whirlwind. Shane was adding a flame and before long there was a giant firestorm surrounding ghost. I could feel him trying to tug his chains back into him but he had very little chance of getting me to budge. Kyle stopped running and Shane dropped to the floor on his back in exhaustion. The flame wall got smaller and smaller and smothered ghost in an intense flame wall. When the flames receded ghost was covered in that same shield wall, he gave us all thumbs up and slumped down to the floor. It was over. I fell to the ground as well and I tried to concentrate and make the blood suit recede. It followed suit. I could feel it pulling out of everyone of my pore's it was an odd feeling, I could feel the suit not wanting to leave. Soon it all went back into the cut in my back which sealed itself from what I could tell was perfectly. My skin was back, I was back, it was almost depressing. I had gone from being able to sense everything around me To having all but these two eyes. I tried to stop thinking about it and focused on the fact that we won. Kyle and I walked over to Shane and helped him up, he rested on both our shoulders. And we raised our hands victoriously into the air. As the same odd healing sphere surrounded us and started filling us with some energy and healing.

"Ladies and gentlemen… the winners, the…raven faction!" phoenix madden pointed towards us as the crowd erupted in ceremonious applause. We were all healed up and felt like new thanks to that healing sphere. We waved to the crowd as they roared at us and then the praise was silenced again.

"and don't forget to thank the courageous, and runners up in this competition, the lion faction. Fear not boys, your performance will be graded by our judges and tallied to form the possibility for the final team to verse the winners of the over all competition. Which will be a battle royal, but this is for another time. Students please shake hands and exchange congratulations." Shane, Kyle and I walked towards the other people and began to shake hands with all of them from left to right. First was josh

"A… I almost had you there Nav, but your hand healed completely. Oh well. Next time hey Nav" I smiled and laughed a little

"yeah sure josh, see you in class buddy" next up was Kane, he pushed his orange hair out of his eyes and smiled at my enthusiastically

"that was heaps amazing Nav. That suit was so awesome, I like fully cut you in the back and it didn't do anything! Absolutely amazing dude!" I blushed a little bit and humbly said:

"thanks Kane, but you did pretty well yourself. Im sure you'll probably get heaps of points!" Kane nodded and I moved onto ghost. he smiled at me and pulled his earphones out.

"That was totally amazing dude. I mean what's your name… Nav? Kane and josh said you had some pretty impressive abilities but that was amazing. No wonder I didn't stand a chance. That was a great idea to snag my chain too. Oh call me Ronny by the way." I smiled and flexed my hand a little bit

"Thanks Ronny. Hey man don't get to down on yourself. You didn't to bad either. Next time eh man?" Ronny nodded and I moved onto Andy. I could see he and Shane were trying to break each others hands with their handshake. I moved on to Andy and he smiled and punched me on the shoulder playfully

"you should of left him to me man! He would have been better off smashed under a rock. But hey dude! Totally nice effort, I never expected anyone could throw a rock back at me. Im gonna expect that in the near future man. Next time I'le win over both of you!" I smiled him and nodded sarcastically. After that phoenix dismissed us to our changing rooms and before I made it back in I noticed the professor walking through the hall, and following him was a wake that was healing everything in it. The broken floor boards, the smashed walls Everything it was truly amazing. Back inside I could hear everyone walking away from the stands there was the loud sound of hundreds of feet walking all over the floor and filing out to wherever it was they were going. Mr. Jackson ran in his arms spread open wide. He was smiling uncontrollably and pulled us all into a great big hug, when he let us go he began to talk

"That…was…brilliant! Sure showed that asshole madden what for didn't you! Oh ho ho! Kyle way to go out there using your tail for balance in your acrobatics, but I want you to figure out a way for you to be more offensive. Think about some weapon of some kind. Shane. You were brilliant. Never have I seen more control over someone's skill in such a short time. It looked like you'd been flying for year's boy! But I told you not to attack that obelisk fella didn't I! And look where it got you, you burnt yourself out too fast trying to melt rock because you got emotional. I want you to work on your emotional control before the next battle, and try and find an easier way for you to burn your energy so you don't burn out so easily. And Navar! Oh Navar my boy you did brilliantly you did! Way to get a hold of your powers there my boy. You should have heard the crowd when you transformed. It was unbelievable. You changed the entire tide of battle you did. And when you used that obelisk's rocks against him, genius! Absolutely genius, ok, ok I will see you all at your next power exploration class. Until then you're all dismissed!" he patted all of us on the shoulder. And left, soon after we all got changed. Kyle left the change rooms muttering something about a weapon, and Shane seemed a little less than pleased about his lecture about "emotional control" though I had a sneaking suspicion he knew it was true as well. I walked out as slowly as I could. Now was the hard thing. The battle was nothing, I'd do the battle ten times over than have to face what I was about to face. Never the less I kept walking and when I reached the end of the hallway out of the change room's there she was, Nikki With a bunch of her friends. I gulped down some air and walked towards them.

CHAPTER 13

First date

I pushed all my fears as far away from my mind as I could and stepped forward towards angel and her friends. When I got close enough Nikki saw me, waved and gestured over towards her. I pushed my head up a little higher and walked towards her. When I got there she was with three other girls. They were all extremely pretty. It was very intimidating. Angel smiled and patted me on the shoulder. She was wearing her black and white stripy shirt she wore the other day with tight black jeans. And a black scarf with a silver angel wing on it.

"Nav that was amazing, those things you did. I can't believe it, you changed the entire way that battle went. I don't think your team would of won without you. You were like hanging off walls and swinging off tentacles. And what about your hand, it like exploded and it didn't even faze you, this was like fully way better than that time you thought that other kid that threw that metal spike at you, what was his name, Sinder? It doesn't matter, oh these are my friends. They all wanted to meet you. Im telling you Nav you've become famous. First here's grace" grace was a little shorter than the other girls, she had blonde hair that came down near her shoulders and her fringe was cut straight across her forehead, she had beautiful blue eyes and deep eye shadow on, her lips were very feminine and her body was in excellent proportion. She was wearing a top that cut off over one of the shoulders (like they wore in the eighties) that framed her perfectly tanned skin and a white denim mini skirt.

"Grace is in the snake group her codename is "Shiva" She can kind of put people into a weird sleep and stuff, it's a little cool but she hasn't really gotten it very powerful yet. Grace stepped forward to me and grabbed my hand and shook it. I was still shell shocked. All these girls were so beautiful I really couldn't find words to talk to any of them. Grace spoke first

"Blood… I mean Nav that was so cool. You were kind of like spider man or something and totally cool man. Hey after you and Nikki are done. You should hang with us a little. I'd heaps want your autograph man" I shook her hand. It was a gentle and warm as Nikki's but smaller and smoother, I blushed at the feeling of her hand and tried to summon the words to talk to her.

"Ah man… it was nothing really. And um…sure why not! Nice meeting you for now grace" grace smiled a mischievous smile and stepped back into the line of girls. Nikki smiled and pointed to the next girl. She was taller than the others and had a long beautiful face that was framed with her long black hair that curled in all the right places. She had piercing blue eyes that were framed with delicate beautiful eye lashes. Her lips were an intense red colour she wore a flattering red corset (that I was almost to afraid to look at) that topped some tight blue hipster jeans.

"This is Kat, she's a part of the lion group, and her powers are kind of that like a cat. They call her "Black Kat" Kat smiled and sheepishly stepped up and shook my hand as well

"Wow Nav, I mean I'm a little pissed that lion team didn't win. But like… wow you were really cool out there Nav. I think you're perfect for our Nikki" I blushed and coughed a little. I totally wasn't expecting that, the girls laughed and Nikki hugged me playfully. She pointed out the next girl (with her arm still around me) she wore a tight black singlet that beheld quite an impressive bust. She was wearing a blue denim mini skirt and a large white belt. She had medium length brown hair, seductive brown eyes and a very evil smile.

"This is Melissa. She's a part of the snake group as well. They call her siren, APPERANTLY she has the power to control and drain power from men. But neither of us has seen it in action." Melissa slinked up to me in a slow seductive way. I was a little scared. She placed a hand on my leg next to my groin. I felt terribly uncomfortable

"Navvy, so nice to meet you, can't wait to see if you got the right…stuff…for our nikki" she slinked back towards the group gently running her fingers over my groin. I tried to act like nothing happened. All the girls giggled a little bit and then Nikki interrupted them.

"Ok we gotta go. Our permission is only for a couple of hours. And all our powers are going to be inhibited for the duration of our time there. Ok girls' seeya later!"

And she dragged me towards the exit by my hand. I heard Melissa yell out

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do" and grace quickly say

"That isn't very much Melissa" and Kat and Grace laughed.

Outside.

The sky was a clear blue and there were very little clouds in the sky. I couldn't imagine a more perfect day. Nikki ran in front of me and started spinning around a little

"Oh Nav isn't it an excellent day?" she smiled and flicked her hair off her eyes when she stopped.

"Yeah. It really is. Hey Nikki. It just occurred to me. How exactly are we getting to, well wherever it is were going?" It was true. I really had so very little clue on what exactly what we were doing. Let alone where we were going. All I knew was I was getting some new clothes. This prospect alone excited me a little. Nikki smiled and laughed at me. She walked a little closer and poked me on the chest.

"Oh Nav, you really are cute sometimes. You know I'm actually from Canada right?" in all matter of truth. I knew fuck all about everybody.

"Um no I didn't know that, you are?"

"Yeah I am. Im from a place not to far from this actually, In fact I was one of the first people they recruited for this place. Oh hey Nav…where are you from?"

"Oh. Im from manly, Sydney, hey I thought you were from Australia. Our power exploration class is for people from the "oceanic region" it was true. All the people in my class were from the oceanic region. Like New Zealand and Australia.

"oh yeah… I am, sort of. My dad works for this weird mysterious company and we got moved to…yeah Sydney. Like sometime last year. But I've grown up in Canada most of my life, Canada is my home, you know?" it just occurred to me how little I knew about everybody. I was quite shocked that she was from Sydney as well

"You were living in Sydney too? Where at? "Nikki smiled and then scrunched up her eyes and tried to concentrate a little

"I don't really remember some like Palm Beach place or something. It was really ritzy; my dad has this really big mansion, I didn't really like it much really. I was heaps pleased when they could said that the facility was back in Canada. Coz I really missed it. I knew grace back in Canada she was in my school so I like already had a friend when I got here I was heaps happy about that. Heaps big shame that we got put in different factions though, but I guess I got put in raven faction for a good reason. Besides least I got you in here right?" I was really enjoying getting to know Nikki; she was really easy to get along with. I had a suspicion that had we would of never even met each other. Nor got along, it seemed like we were from totally different worlds, Hospital or not. Neither of this really answered my question that's were still in my head

"You still haven't answered any of my questions" I rolled my eyes and laughed a little looking at where my watch would normally be

"Oh hey… remind me to buy a watch… oh wait... I don't have any money? Is where were going to need money… coz… I don't have any…" Nikki laughed and make a little gesture like she was taking a note (to buy me a watch) and then laughed a little

"Oh relax, the schools taking care of it. They told me they would be more than happy sponsoring you for more clothes; they said that they had to take you so quickly that you couldn't grab anymore clothes." I made an odd scrunchy smile in my face and thought about it. I had a suspicion that she probably asked Mr. Jackson he seemed like the only one that would offer to pay for my clothes I imagine the professor might, but I didn't know him very well. And besides Mr Jackson was the one that knew I hadn't had any more clothes. Curious that he told that little white lie, rather than just saying I didn't have any more clothes. I'le have to remember to thank him for that. That was that problem solved. But I still didn't know where we were going. Or even how we were getting there

"I still don't even know where were going, or even how were going there. You enjoy being mysterious don't you!" and I had every suspicion that she was indeed enjoying this. Nikki laughed and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head and smiled

"Maybe I do Navvy. As for where were going. That's a surprise (she winked) how were getting there; well were flying of course!" flying? I didn't think I could handle flying. I knew I was basically impervious to damage and everything but I still wasn't ready for flying, and that was beside the point that I couldn't fly anyway!

"Flying, how?" Nikki smiled and from her back sprouted two massive white angelic wings. She looked at both of them then smiled at me.

"How do you think silly? Oh here I'm supposed to give you this. It'll magnetize to your wristwatch" she threw me a small little orange node. I attached it to my wrist watch and it beeped twice and then up the top corner of the display displayed an orange swirl that spinned again and again.  
"what's it do?" I asked Nikki as she advanced upon me

"Oh it's a portable one of those healing spheres they had in the game today, so you know don't fall to your horrible death or anything" she rolled her eyes and laughed a little. Her massive wings feathering the air lightly

"Oh great, now I feel heaps confident" she punched me on the shoulder and opened her arms as if to hug me

"Oh you have nothing to worry about. Now hold onto me so we can get going already" I looked at her shocked

"You want me to do what?" Nikki tsk'd a little bit and gestured to her arms again

"Your not afraid of me are you Navar?" I really wasn't. And I didn't see anyway out of this without hurting her feelings.

"Oh…no…I...guess Im not…" I walked up to her and hugged her around the waist. It was warm and comfortable. She gestured for me to step on her feet to use them as balance.

"Ok Nav. Don't let go ok? Keep holding on" I was still terrified, but I didn't want her to see that.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that!" I said in the most mucho voice I could muster. I still doubt it was very convincing. Her wings began to beat against the wind violently it was very intimidating in mere seconds. We were soaring above the Institute. It was quite a large school it covered the entire plateau of the mountain it was built upon. I guessed it was about at least 3-4 kilometres wide. Angel spoke into my ear and pointed towards the horizon. Over several of the mountain tops appeared a settlement. And I could see a rather large complex. I guessed that was where were going

"That's where were going? That place?" I pointed at the rather large complex. It was quite far away. But because we were flying we had a direct route it wouldn't take more than about ten minutes. I imagined driving would be quite difficult and would take several hours to reach the town, having to navigate through several large mountains. Nikki nodded to me and told me that it was indeed the place we were going on. I felt like I could hold on to her forever. Having my arms around her just felt totally natural. As if our bodies melted together. I however didn't trust my actual body. I shifted myself a little bit and told angel not to worry. I placed my severed hand around her chest. It oozed around her until it met at the back like a large belt. From my wrist sprouted two tentacles that wrapped around my feet and pulled me away from hers and allowed me to stand on my own behalf. Nikki looked rather shocked and fingered the odd goo around her waist.

"This stuff isn't going to eat my clothes is it Nav! IT BETTER NOT!" to be honest I had no idea. But I figured if I focused on it not doing it, it more probably wouldn't (quite the opposite of what my instincts were telling me to do) I could control it. I decided to comfort her

"No, no I don't think it will. You got nothing to worry about" I yelled at to her over the wind. I was getting cold. And I had no idea how she wasn't cold. I was getting freezing. I had the impression that her body must have certain adaptations for flying, such as freezing cold winds not affecting her.

"Good! Its weird, it kind of feels like skin doesn't it? But I know it's totally not. Ok Navvy hold on I'm gonna go into a dive so we can get there soon ok?" I tightened the tentacles I had wrapped around my legs as Nikki pulled her wings closer to her side The effect was instantaneous we plummeted to the earth at amazing speeds. The wind began to felt like little needles whipping past me. I closed my eyes I didn't want to look. I think I may have even let out a little scream.

But I couldn't hear anything but the rushing winds past me I tried to concentrate on Nikki's body against me. How amazingly wonderful it felt to me. But then the curiosity got the better of me and I willed my eyes open (just a little bit) and I could see colours speeding past me. Green and brown and even some birds, I felt us twist and turn and change direction several times. Nikki's amazing wings were thundering down and up every now and again, and were effortlessly controlling our descent. It was still not more comforting. I closed my eyes again and tried to focus on something, anything rather than our fall to our death. Before I knew it I felt a large thud and a bunch of moving rocks and leaves. I opened my eyes, we had landed I willed my hand back to its original hand form and looked around where we were. We landed in some odd clearing that appeared to be a little bit away from the large complex. I queried nikki on why we landed here;  
"oh. I was told that I couldn't just land in the middle of the mall. Civilians dont need to know about, you know. Us… so I landed a safe distance away from it so we could walk in safely. Hey! you enjoy the flying?" I looked in the distance of the mall, and it was fairly close. Just through this clearing of pine trees. In reference to the flying, I really, really didn't want to do that EVER again

"Um yeah totally, other than the whole thinking I was gonna die thing." She made a fake hurt reaction as her massive white wings faded back into her back. She looked into her watch and counted a little on her fingers.

"According to our wristwatches we have about 30 seconds left of our powers before there switched off" I found this strange that these wristbands of ours could communicate to the facility even from here. I guess what that Roden kid said must have been true. These wrist watches really were amazing. I looked at mine. I still had _"blood"_ written on it and a small raven logo on it. And the orange swirl that was related to my temporary body shield (if I needed it) and under the raven logo was a counter that had 20 seconds left to count down on it. I fashioned my hand into a blade a couple of times before I felt a sting up my arm and found that it was really hard for me to do it. It was odd. Because I thought the inhibitors stopped our powers completely, but I could still use mine. It was just really hard too. Nikki grabbed my hand and ran down the hill towards the mall I had little else to do but tag along, not that I didn't mind holding her hand of course. When we got through the clearing of trees before us was a rather large car park. And a little bit further was the shopping mall. It was large and oddly designed, with jaunty angles sticking out all over it. And strange odd glass domes sticking out in stupid parts of the whole complex's dumb design. Nikki noticed me scrutinizing the complex

"Nav, your acting like you've never seen a mall before" truth be told I hadn't really. Not that I was going to tell her that.

"It's not that, its just kind of stupid designed don't you think?" She laughed put her hands around her hips and looked it up and down herself, she shrugged and said

"There all pretty much stupid designed if you ask me. But isn't that what malls were really about. Having excuses to stupidly design things?" I laughed,shrugged and started walking towards the mall. The front of it bustled with people exiting and entering. I noticed a group of younger looking girls all going giddy over some message one of them got. It was so odd how I felt completely distant to anyone else in this entire place. Like I was some completely different species, I looked at my hand. I guess I am a totally different species. My thinking was interrupted by Nikki who grabbed my hand and started bouncing enthusiastically

"Well Navvy where do you want to go first we only have two hours before we have to go back to the facility" I had absolutely no clue where I wanted to go. I didn't even know what was in there. It could be a zoo for all I knew. I figured I'd have to wing my way someway out of this to as not showcase my retarded ignorance of everything

"I dunno, you're the one dressing me lead away Nikki" Nikki laughed and a raised an eyebrow in a sort of "your damn right I am" sort of way she pulled me into the mall past the large glass electric doors. She stopped and looked me up and down and placed her finger on her beautiful lips in a thinking fashion.

"Hmmm…I'm just trying to think of where to take you first. What kind of clothes do you like

" yet again I had absolutely no idea what kind of clothes I liked. I didn't even know there was a difference. I just always wore what my mum gave me. I was really trying to keep up the façade of me at least knowing something about the world outside of a hospital bed. Of course I had no damn clue at all.

"I dunno nikki. What would you like to see me in" I winked at her. Besides my best instincts to cut my head off right there and end this entire thing, I resisted. Nikki puckered her lips in another thinking fashion, I hoped we moved soon coz I didn't want to get caught staring at her face for so long. She gestured that she had an idea dragged me towards a shop called, Dangerfield. In the back of my eye I was sure I saw someone staring at me intently. I could swear it looked like someone I knew but I shrugged it off. I didn't know anyone anyway. Dangerfield was my kind of store (if I had a kind of store). It was full of skater like clothing. Nikki bought me a black hoodie it was sleeveless and resembled my team uniform a lot. It had a black skull on the back with a web design that crawled over my shoulders. Underneath that she bought me a white t-shirt that a black eagle with its wings outstretched and it said in a vintage rock and roll style writing it said "dangerous" she bought me some black jeans that had some little tears around the knees, and a tribal red tattoo that ran up my leg. I had two arm bands that were black and red checks. I looked myself in the mirror I liked the look. I really liked it; I never really had a look before. But this one really suited me I thought. I bought a black long sleeve shirt that had some random red design over it. And a couple of hoodies one with a spider on it, the other had pinstripes over it. Nikki insisted I buy some stupid pinstripe hat that I refused to wear. All this was paid with a credit card that was issued by the school. It seemed rather cool. I opted to wear the first set clothes out of the store. When we left I had the same feeling that I was being watched again. I looked back and there was no-one there just a shadow of a large pot plant that was placed in the middle of the walkway. Nikki stopped and pulled playfully on the jumper.

"Now that's a whole lot better. You look a whole lot sexier now!" she laughed and did a fake sort of slide up and down my body and then laughed. Whatever it was it felt great and I really didn't want her to stop

"So what do you think about the new look Navvy?" and I honestly really did like it

"I love it, I really do. I think it really suits me don't you, I mean I look totally badass" Nikki cracked up laughing and had to support herself on one her knees

"I don't think you should try saying badass, like ever again" I felt a little insulted and I faked a hurt look

"And why is that?" Nikki composed herself and straightened her clothes once more.

"it just, it just sounds so totally odd coming from you Navvy As if YOU could ever be badass." I thought about it again. Here was that whole "I wouldn't hurt a fly" opinion of me showing through, and though I thought it was true. I didn't really like hurting people anyway. I didn't want her to think I was weak.

"I totally could. You saw me before…" Nikki placed her hands around her hips and cocked her head to the side a little. In a sort of "uh huh –sure" way I raised an eyebrow back at her

"Oh shush, c'mon we only got about 45mins left to kill, you hungry? Let's go get something to eat!" Now that I thought about it, I was a little hungry. On the way to the food court we were pointing out a couple of stores we had to go in on the way back. We even stopped and bought some more random shirts. And a couple of pairs of jeans, there was a more formal type of store on the way near the food court that I told nikki I thought we should go into on the way back. Nikki agreed. But there was still something bothering me. I felt like I was still being watched. But every time I looked back it was just shadows again, I just put it down to nerves. This was my first time in a mall, ever. I was probably just nervous. Not to mention that I was with the most beautiful girl I'd ever met. It was just nerves. When we made it to the food court it was a myriad of different foods, from Chinese to Mexican, from hot dogs to sushi. After walking around all of them I decided I'd try sushi, Nikki decided she'd have the same

"Have you ever had sushi before Nav?" of course I hadn't but I had heard of it. And though the idea of raw fish turned me off completely I really wanted to try it. I really had a hunger to try all the things I couldn't try before, I guess this was just one step closer to that goal. Nikki and I sat down and ate our sushi. I made her laugh when I smelled one of my pieces and screwed up my face. And another time when I put half of the wasabi on one piece and ate it. When I could finally see again I asked her;

"Why didn't you tell me wasabi was spicy!?" Nikki laughed and put down her chopsticks

"Coz it was dead funny that's why, besides I thought everyone knew wasabi was spicy. God Navar sometimes I think you lived your life in a bubble!" I blushed a little and tried to brush the comment off as casually as I could. I quite enjoyed the taste of sushi; it was a refreshing flavour that filled you up as well. After we finished we got up and walked towards the formal themed store it was called "well dressed maniac" I bought a long cloak like that guy on that matrix movie I saw once and a couple of blazers that had pinstripes or random patterns on them. And Nikki even found me a watch. It was silver and had a led display on it that was red. With black letters and the background had black webbing over it, I was just happy to have a watch. When we got out of the store there were people running for the exits and there was a loud buzzing noise, and without warning the ceilings started raining. Nikki in quite an alarmed voice said

"Nav that's the fire alarm C'mon we gotta get out of here! Ah man my hair!" She grabbed my hand and ran me towards the exit from my back I got that same feeling that someone was watching me. And I could see flames sprouting from somewhere in the back of the mall. We were right next to the exit when suddenly one of the large pot plants from the second story was about to fall on nikki ( I guessed the water from the fire preventers was making it slide across the shiny floor) I yelled out to nikki. And she stopped and looked up as the large pot plant was about to fall upon her. I jumped towards as fast as I could landing on top of her in just seconds. We both screamed and closed our eyes. When we opened them we were enveloped in that strange healing sphere I had totally forgotten about. We both looked up and laughed a little bit. I don't know why it seemed funny; it just did for some reason. So for a couple of minutes we were sitting on the ground rolling around laughing for some reason. Luckily all the clothes I bought were in water tight bags. (I thought they only came in normal bags. I just assumed that Canadians were weird). When we finally stopped laughing I was lying with my head on Nikki's lap.

"Hey. Nikki how are we getting home? Were not flying again are we?" she laughed and punched me in the shoulder playfully.

"No, a car should be picking us any minute now, and hey! It wasn't that bad you sook!" I sighed a sense of relief. As good as holding Nikki was, it wasn't worth another flying session. We got up and walked outside and there was our driver standing just outside the door looking worried.

"No problems then young masters?" we looked at each other both dripping wet. And at the same time laughed and said "nope, nothing"

"Good, good. Im so very glad, heavens forbid what would of happened to me if I didn't return you two safely. You two master Keelan. I hear both the professor AND Mr. Jackson are both quite fond of you. Oh of course and you to young Ms. Bennet. Now lets get you two some towels and back to the facility. We were ferried towards a rather luxurious looking limo and we got in the back seat. Nikki snuggled up to me while I sat upright. I had my arm around her shoulder. When the car started moving Nikki positioned herself so she was closer to my face.

"Hey nav…thanks" I was quite surprised about this. I didn't really know what she was thanking me for

"Thanks? What for?" she moved herself so she was directly in front of my face. I could feel her breathing on me

"Nav You saved my life back there!" and then I remembered, that pot plant was going to fall on her until I jumped in its path

"Yeah… I guess I did! How about that" she placed her around my waist and pushed a finger to my lips. She moved in and we kissed. It was amazing as if every part of my body was suddenly part of my lips. I felt more alive than I ever did before. Nikki slid down and put her head in my lap and faced her head up to look at mine. We spent the rest of the car ride embraced in each other and chatting enthusiastically about everything we could muster.

CHAPTER 14

Aftermath

When I got back from my date with Nikki She kissed me and said that she had to go see her friends and that she would see me back in the dorm. I reluctantly let her go. It was odd, letting her go was like letting go a piece of myself. I got out of the car and I was quickly hurried to the inside of the facility. I was greeted by many amounts of curious looks. A bunch of girls laughed as I walked past, and one small kid even started following me for a while. Till I looked back and he ran off screaming. I had no idea what was going on. Why was everyone scared of me all of a sudden? I head my name called out from somewhere near the left of me. It was Leigh; he was wearing another band t-shirt some wrist spikes and had his shoulder length black hair tucked behind his ears. He waved and I walked over to him. Keeping a suspicious eye out for everybody that was still looking at me like I was wearing a mirror, I got to Leigh and he smiled. I noticed he had a couple of beads of sweats rolling down his forehead and he looked a little exhausted. I raised and eyebrow

"What exactly do you do in those private lessons anyway?" I asked Leigh, Leigh wiped his forehead free of the sweat and laughed a little bit

"Why don't I show you?" Leigh concentrated a little and then from his back sprouted some impressive demonic bat like wings. They were red and leathery and had a point on the apex of its anatomy. He squeezed his fists together and his arms sprouted a bunch of thorny spikes and became dark and leathery. His eyes became red and lizard like but still had a slight human visage. He laughed and looked back towards his wings. As his head sprouted something looking quite like ram horns. All in all Leigh looked quite intimidating, as he was some sort of demon that had just sprouted from the depths of hell Leigh pointed to his wings with his spiked arms.

"Bat wings" his voice sounds like mine when I transformed as if was still his voice, but it was deeper and more intimidating. He pulled his arms out in front of him. His hands resembled lizard like claws and his whole skin tone had changed to a black leathery form

"Arms… are a thorny devils, and the face is a mixture of a ram, lizard and a bat" I got it now. Leigh hadn't turned into a demon. He'd just mixed and matched different aspects of animals to creature this ghoulish fiend in front of me. I stepped back and flinched my hand and fashioned it to look something like Leigh's arm. He laughed and concentrated on resuming his normal human self. As did I with my hand, when Leigh returned to his normal human visage I wanted to ask him a few questions;

"So that's what you do in there. With Mr Jackson?"

"uh yeah kind of, I mean we just more or less try and think of different animals I could source to myself, and using their different combinations in a variety of ways, it's actually really hard. And we come up with some funky looking things like a flying alligator once! Mr Jackson also says he's going to get someone to change my name away from bear. Anyway, anyway enough about me! How about you dude, that competition you were awesome. You totally changed the tide of that battle. I think. If Shane wasn't such an idiot and didn't go straight for that obelisk guy, it might have been a little different. What's up with those two anyway?" This was like the fifth time someone said I had "changed the tide of the battle" I never really thought about it that way. But I guess I really did, Kyle and Shane were doing fine but they were two evenly matched against the fighters they were against. (Or in Shane's case. Totally in over his head) I really did change the tide of battle and allow them to really use there weakness's against them. In Shane's case I really had no idea what was between those two. They just plain simply didn't like each other

"You know, I was wondering that myself. Obelisk once told me that Shane threw a fireball at him apparently accidentally. But I dunno I just reckon it goes deeper than that, they just really don't like each other hey. You see how furiously Shane was fighting him. It was like he wanted him dead or something" Leigh nodded and looked up into the roof of the hallway. He then looked at me and pointed at my clothes and raised an eyebrow

"Hey. You have new clothes. And you're a little wet. Where have you been?" That was it! That's why everyone was looking at me, maybe because I was wet? It had just occurred to me that I was indeed still wearing the clothes I had put on earlier. All my others had been sent to my dorm. Where I had been was a totally different matter. I wasn't sure who knew other than Linda. But I decided it wasn't worth keeping a secret anyway;

"Oh um... I went with angel to buy some new clothes." Leigh looked a little shocked and then laughed and winked at me

"OOOOOH really… you dog nav, you dog. How did it go?" I thought about the actual "date" in a whole it went quite well. Nothing like saving a girls life to get you into their good graces

"Oh, yeah… I got heaps of new clothes and stuff, nah it was good." Leigh laughed and looked at his wristband

"Hey I gotta meet Linda back in the main hall for dinner, you want to come with? I nodded and we walked off the main hall. This was the first I noticed the time. It was dark and the moon was out. I checked my new watch it was 6:00. Leigh and I chatted all the way too the main hall, laughing and contorting our hands in a manner of different things.

In the main hall I sat next to Kyle and Shane who were fighting over a piece of steak in front of them. Linda pushed pass Leigh almost ignoring him and sat as close to me as she could, as she mentally controlled the piece of meat Kyle and Shane were fighting over and pushed it into Kyle's mouth so Shane couldn't get it. Shane rolled his eyes and gave Linda a dirty look. She had a little evil smile over her face until she held me down and looked straight into my eyes sizing up my new clothes

"Nice new look navvy. So it went well did it? It better of gone well! If you stuffed it up nav, so help me!" Shane and Kyle both looked at each other and at the exact time ( with both there mouths full)   
"what went well?" Linda laughed to herself and then eyed at me as if to say "you tell them" I blushed a little and went to open my mouth. And then as if summoned by pure chance I felt a soft hand over my shoulder. And then a soft kiss on my cheek

"Hey navvy. You're still wearing your wet clothes, Get changed you idiot. Anyway I'm going to sit over with my friends just thought I'd say hi. Seeya!" she walked off and when she was in a good enough distance. Both Kyle and Shane spat out there food at the same time.

"What the hell was that?" said Kyle

"You, her. How?" said Shane. Linda laughed and put on her most girliest face possible and an odd air head like voice

"Oh didn't you know, or navvy's the big man on campus these days" and she put her arm playfully around me. Shane raised an eyebrow and Shane pointed at my clothes

"Nav, you have new clothes. As a matter of fact where have you been since the competition?"

"Yeah... something suss is going on here eh Shane…" Linda and Leigh laughed as Shane and Kyle moved closer to asses my new clothes, I decided to end there torment

"Guys, will you two relax. I went on a date with her ok. And yes it went fine. And YES I have new clothes. Hey what happened after the competition anyway?" Shane and Kyle sighed together and Shane began to slice some of his meat in a rather unsavoury manner. Kyle spoke first.

"It was insane nav. We had so many people come up to us. It was crazy, I had to sign autographs nav, autographs! And there were even a couple of girls that wanted kisses on the cheek and stuff. A couple of them even wanted to touch my tail, said it was the coolest thing they had ever seen!" Kyle was gesturing with hands again, except that one of them was going so fast you could hardly see it. Shane swallowed a piece of meat and joined the conversation.

"Yeah Kyle's right, it was pretty intense. I had a bunch of people wanting to touch my flames when I cooled them. It was probably a good thing you went on your date anyway, would of hogged all the attention" Shane grabbed a piece of potato and began roasting it in his hands with his flames. Kyle was tapping the table curiously, as if he was deep in thought. Leigh leant in front of Linda so that he could see my face.

"What these guys are failing to mention was the massive amount of crowds waiting for you out there."

"Oh…yeah… there was that" Shane quipped as quickly as he could. Trying to give it as a little weight as possible, Leigh laughed a little at Shane and then turned his face to me again

"There were so many people there nav. That's why we didn't really notice you had gone. We thought you kind of just got swallowed into the mass of people wanting to meet you" I scrunched up my face and thought about it. I wasn't used to fame. I really didn't know how to deal with it; I hardly even thought of it anyway, I didn't really think I did anything that deserved fame really. I just did what came naturally to me. Someone like Shane deserved fame more, someone that had complete control over his abilities, not like me where I always kind of thought that my powers controlled me. Fame was such a strange thing as if something unforseen amassed people to want to get to know me. To have some piece of me they could keep for themselves. I was trying to think about it a little more but I was interrupted by Linda

"Navvy you're doing it again!" I looked up from the table and over to Linda and looked over here questioningly

"Doing what?" she laughed and put her finger to my head

"Getting lost in your thoughts again!" I laughed a little, I never really thought about it, but I suppose I did do it a lot, most of my life all I really had was my thoughts.

"Oh uh um yeah I guess I am" Linda smiled at me and turned over to Leigh to ask him how his class went, when there was a voice from the speaking booth. I looked over as everyone else did, it was the professor he twirled his moustache around his finger as he waited for silence. When he finally obtained it he spoke;

"Students, just one thing, firstly congratulations are in order to the raven team that was quite an impressive display of valour and control over all of your extraordinary skills. Of course the lion team fought valiantly and also worth due amounts of our praise. However the reason I have called you to attention is a matter of grave importance. During your celebrations of the competition, it appears one child got trampled on and appears to of suffered a number of wounds to the head. While I am not blaming anyone directly, please students exercise more caution in the next battle. The child's name was Roden mc'miles and he was a part of the snake faction. His code name was "hacker" that will be all children. Please enjoy yourself and you will be contacted by your wristwatches if we need you for anything that will be all." There was a murmur among some of the students but it soon settled down afterwards to its dull throbbing of different voices. I met Roden once. He could meld with machines; he got his wristband to tell the time! He was really nice, if not a little nerdy. There was something I didn't understand though. The nurse here had amazing healing powers. If not those orange spears could almost bring someone back from the dead. If he was only trampled on why was he not healed already, I went to ask everybody when Kyle broke the silence. He stopped tapping the table and shouted

"THAT'S IT!" he got off the table and ran out of the hall as fast as he could. All three of us looked at each other

"What the hell was that?" said Shane as he pointed to where Kyle was.

"Beats me" said Linda as she psychically controlled all the messy plates we had, and stacked them up cleanly. I sharpened one of my fingers on my severed hand into a claw and began to carve "n.k 4 n.b" I'd seen some of them around sometimes. I assumed they were lovers trying to carve there eternal love for one another in something permanent. I honestly thought it was a silly idea. But I wanted to try it sometime. And so I did. But when I finished I got rather embarrassed and covered it up with a plate that was astray from Linda's cleaning. Linda and Leigh said they were going for a walk before they went back up into the dorm. And Shane said he was gonna go find Kyle. I saw Shane duck and look around cautiously, I imagined he was trying to lose himself from those Asian girls that kept following him, like he was some sort of god or something. I didn't really want to go find Kyle. I wasn't sure I could take his energy at this point. I really had quite a day. I looked at my watch it was 8:00, it was too early to go to bed. And I was really stumped on what to do. I know what I wanted to do. It was be with Nikki I looked over to where she normally sat. Her, grace and her other friends were gone. As a matter of fact there were very little people left in the hall. There were a couple of stragglers like some younger kids wrestling near the seats of the lion table, I had my hand on the table and I was shaping it to look like a plate. When suddenly a warm gentle voice interrupted my concentration

"Good evening Mr Keelan" it was the professor. He hitched up his large white coat and his grey pinstripe pants and sat down in front of me. I was so shocked that I almost fell off my chair. The professor laughed a little and pushed his spectacles closer to his face.

"How are you doing Navar?" I was quite surprised to find myself chatting here with the professor of this entire academy. Talking to me, in the middle of the main hall, as if we were a bunch of school friends. I always had a bit of a suspicion the professor was quite fond of me; wether or not this was because of his hypothesis that I was basically omnipotent. Or that he really just admired me I wasn't quite sure.

"Oh…yes I'm fine. How are you professor? Hey I saw you at the end of my competition that was amazing. Everything was fixing itself around you" the professor laughed a little and slicked began twirling his moustache

"Oh, that… that was nothing truly. Just a matter of complex supernatural principles of reversal, but I shan't bore you with the complex sciences of things that defy physics themselves. I was talking about you. I noticed that young ms bennet did indeed get you some clothes" "the complex science of things that defied physics" It always occurred to me that the professor was a smart man, but to study things that had no limitations. Seemed impossible to me

"Yeah she did. I was wondering how did that all go down anyway, I mean err thank you for paying for my new clothes professor I'm very grateful" the professor chuckled and feigned his hand away

"Oh my dear boy it was nothing. However you should thank Mr Holmes it was mostly his idea. But I was indeed more than happy to oblige… you see, as I have indeed said before you are a special case my boy." I was never quite sure if the professor was more interested in me, or what I could do. But he always did his best to keep it ambiguous.

"You always say that professor. What do you really mean by it?" the professor didn't chuckle this time. He stiffened his face and looked quite serious towards me

"Navar I mean that you are an amazing child. You spent most of your years hospitalised barely unable to move because you were so full of blood thickeners. And all because everybody was afraid to see what would happen if you were actually able to bleed. And yet here you are returned back to a world you were so cruelly denied, and yet many would expect you to be bitter about the world around you. But you are kind, considerate of others, always friendly and never overconfident, even after I explained to you the amazing scope of your abilities." I think I blushed. What the professor was really nice. I suppose my questions were answered he did indeed appear to like me quite a lot. The professor continued

"And above wanting to talk to you in general, I wanted to speak to you tonight about other matters as well. I was wondering how your abilities were progressing? I watched you in the battle earlier today this was the second time you chose to use your spider like visage. Tell me is this what comes natural? Or indeed is it just what you like." I never really thought about it that way, I always guessed that it was just my body reacting to its instincts. I do remember when I first transformed into it I kind of willed myself to do. But I never could clearly say what it was

"I don't know professor. Honestly. It comes natural, but I'm not entirely sure if it's me or if its my body. I can say that I am starting to get a better control around it. Like that last battle, I really felt I could control it a little more. But as you said the possibilities are just so mind bending that I try to limit my focus a little bit so I can control it, least I think that's what Im doing" the professor made a thinking motion and placed his finger to his lips.

"Yes, yes quite ingenious, taking it one step at a time. As I'm quite sure I would indeed do so as well. However may I offer you some advice? I suggest to you my boy that you not stick so much to your first incarnation of your powers. You have an amazingly vast pool to draw upon. Don't get comfortable with just that one version of your powers. And perhaps try to work the powers around yourself. And not your blood suit, oh! And hows your hand my boy?" in truth I really didn't know else how to actively use my power, other than my hand and whenever I got cut.

"Professor. I don't know how to use my powers actively other than this (I held my hand up and contorted it into a claw and a sword) and if I use the blood suit" the professor thought about it for a little bit. And got up out of the chair

"Your quite right my boy. Quite right indeed, I shall think about this myself until then young Navar. Enjoy your new clothes and I shall look forward to see your battle against the snake faction and if I can repeat something of highest confidence I trust you will not tell anyone, (in whispers he said) your doing quite well points wise" the professor got up and walked towards the exit. After he wasn't in the hall anymore and there was very little people left. I walked myself up to towards the dorm. There was very little people left in the hallways, and many ominous shadows flowed through the windows. It was quite intimidating. Then from the corner of my eye I swear I saw a cloaked figure. I looked back and there was nothing but shadows. I think I imagined the cruel laugh that preceded it. I walked back up to my bed undressed and got in, Kovu crawled up soon after and rested himself next to my chest.

CHAPTER 15

The serpent and the raven

It was Sunday. I opened my eyes and noticed Nikki walking over towards me. She was wearing some black track pants she bought when we went shopping and a yellow singlet top. With white angelic wings spread over the bust, I found that a little ironic. How was it that she always woke up before me. Every single day.

"How do you manage to wake up before me, every single day Nikki!" she laughed and pulled her finger to her mouth in a "shush" fashion. She crawled on top of me laid on me for a little bit and played with my hair. She touched her lips to mine and we kissed for a little. Till she slowly and seductively pulled herself away from me, it felt as if our bodies were being ripped apart. It was almost painful. I tried to pull her back to me and she shook her head and said she had to go. I rolled my eyes and let her go. And she walked out of the room. For the moment, out of my life. I got up and pulled on a black shirt that had the eagle with its wings outstretched and "dangerous" in a vintage rock and roll style written over it. Kyle woke up with me and joined me in walking to the main hall. Where he explained his absence last night

"Well you see I was tapping the table thinking about what Mr Jackson said, about me needing to be more offensive and then it dawned on me! Wood." I looked a Kyle and got lost in his hair for a little moment, I had no idea what the hell was going on with his hair, I could almost swear he had to have some sort of different superpower that meant his hair had its own identity it never really went where Kyle went. I imagined if he tried to brush his hair it would probably break the brush.

"Wood Kyle?" he laughed and pulled a stick out of his pocket. It was about twice as long as my hand. Smooth and about as thick as my thumb, he grinned at me and then squeezed the stick and concentrated. It grew to the size of a kendo staff. And then even longer, he forked it at the end. And some of the parts started to grow thorns. He then stopped concentrating on the stick and it returned to its normal size.

"Wow, Kyle that's really cool. Im glad you found a way to have an offence" Kyle smiled and opened the door to the main hall that was in front of us. The hall was bustling with people from all the different factions. We were encouraged to sit in our faction groups, but generally people just sat with there friends. I took some time to think about the idea of having different factions. I suppose it was a really good idea. So that the different leaders could nurture their respective talents, in the raven faction we needed to be taught the ability to deal with our powers on a growing scale, because most of our abilities were growing. In the lion faction I imagined phoenix taught them mostly about coping with their powers on a purely offence level. Due to the nature that most of their powers were either offensive based. Or on an as-is basis, in the snake or serpent faction as it was sometimes called, it was a little different. Most of the snake faction's powers were on a defensive or deceptive basis. As far as teacher or tactics I had absolutely no clue about the snake faction I sat down as Kyle was showing Linda and Leigh his idea of a weapon. But the true shock was to come when Shane walked in. Shane's hair was on fire. It shone blue and in rippled up just like it did when he was totally encased in his flame suit. It had different tones of colour from blues to whites. It was quite an impressive display. And it certainly made a few heads turn on the way to him joining us for breakfast. Kyle was totally entranced by it. Linda and Leigh were trying there best not to be impressed. But I saw through it. I myself was quite interested in Shane's new hair do. It was Kyle who first spoke

"Wow…cool! Can I touch it Shane?" Shane nodded indicating that it was safe, Kyle ran his hands through it as if it were a candle. Linda didn't seem as impressed as Kyle was

"So Shane, why the hair? Want more fans?" Shane looked a little hurt and then pulled his face closer to Linda

"Actually…no! As a matter of fact I was trying to figure out how I could sustain my flame for longer. I guessed that if I constantly sustain a flame, ill slowly build up endurance to it" Kyle nodded and started adding up numbers in his head I assumed related to Shane's idea. Leigh spoke next

"Actually Shane. That's a really good idea dude! I only wish I joined in the competition now too, I can like do stuff with my powers. And I can't really use them against anybody…not that that's what there used for though. It was me who spoke next. I was still thinking about my complete unknown about the snake faction;

"Hey guys, does anyone know anything really about the snake faction. I mean I was thinking were against them next right. Like next week or something. And there all like dark and mysterious with weird powers, I was thinking if we could find something about the snake faction we could get an insight that would help us win the battle." Everybody looked at each other and nodded in an agreement Linda spoke first

"I think maybe you should ask Mr Jackson today at power exploration class." Today was Monday and yes, as a matter of fact we had a power exploration class today it was the first in a long while mostly since the incident with the Simkin, Mr Jackson mostly did consultations with the other people since our last lesson. I figured That this would be a perfect chance to ask about the snake faction. I pushed it past my mind and grabbed myself some bacon and ate my breakfast as Shane and Kyle tried to show off each other's new developments. And Linda and Leigh were discussing something to do with something; I wasn't really thinking about it. I was looking over the table towards Nikki. Soon I would be able to spend a whole lesson with her. I really couldn't wait after not too long we all grabbed our things and headed off too the power exploration class.

The hall was as it usually was. Mr Jackson walked in he was wearing a large black suit that had purple pinstripes on it. it had a purple raven logo on the pocket, and the back of the jacket. He walked in an rolled on his feet he was obviously quite pleased, and what seemed like full of team spirit. We all arranged ourselves in our usual circles. I moved myself next to nikki, I decided it was my turn to make some sort of move. It felt totally odd but I slinked my hand around her stomach. She noticed it was me and pushed herself a little closer to me. I smiled and ran my hands a little on her chest. Mr Jackson interrupted the moment.

"Welcome, welcome children! And can we have a round of applause for our competition winners here!" there was a rather enthusiastic round of applause which made me blush. Kyle laughed a little and sped around the room a couple of times. And Shane shied away from the attention. This utterly confused Linda and I could see she totally didn't get it.

"Good, good good Mr Jackson clapped a little for silence and got the attention of the room back. Ok usual fare today but in a different twist I would like you to split into pairs and try and rally the powers off each other. Obviously in a completely non lethal way of course, but just see if you and land gentle blows on each other, Shane and Kyle paired up, and Kyle deployed his new weapon. Shane did nothing but keep his hair alight. I had Kane come up and offer to be my partner (much to the annoyance of josh) and I respectfully declined. Because I wanted to team up with angel. The girl with the hair that could turn into whips that I moulded my power off in the first place teamed up with the other girl who could make sonic booms with her hands. Both of those girls really seemed to of improved there abilities quite a lot. The girl with the whip hair had considerable control over most of her strands of hair. The girl with the sonic clap was almost deafeningly loud. When we had all grouped into pairs Mr Jackson began to give us instructions

"ok today I know what I said before and I want to explain what I mean in a more concise fashion is I want you all to find a way to use your power in a defensive fashion as in trying to use your powers to make dodging easier and assisting yourself in a supernatural fashion" everyone spread around the room, nikki and I stayed somewhere near the middle. She grew her giant angel wings from her back (the same that took me on that torturous ride to the mall) and began to feather the air lightly so she was only just floating. I noticed Leigh had done the same and was floating lightly with those massive bat wings he had. Kyle hadn't done much. But Shane was just standing there as well. With only his hair and his hands on fire, I was really stumped on this one I had no idea how to use my powers in an agile way without using my blood suit. I flexed my special hand and got ready for angel.

"Oh you're so going to lose this one navvy!" I rolled my eyes and stood there. I tried to hide that I really had no idea of what to do

"Yeah we'll see" I said with as much confidence as I could. And then from behind us somewhere in the middle of the room Mr Jackson blew a whistle and it began. Nikki flew up a little higher and gestured for me to get her. I shook my head and did the same. She obliged rather quickly she rushed towards me with an intense speed; I had very little time to act. But I figured out what to do in the last minute I flung my hand left and sent out several tentacles about three meters and dragged myself along them like a snare. I narrowly avoided her; I was hanging upside down from red tentacles supporting me. I smiled and retracted them flipping over and landing in my instinctual spider like stance that felt like second nature to me and smiled. Angel rolled her eyes and began to fly up higher as if to gather more speed. This gave me time to look around at what other people were doing. Shane was being absolutely owned by Kyle. But he was trying his best to dodge Kyle without using his flight, by creating thrusts with his hands blowing him in opposite directions, but it was doing little to nothing matched to Kyle's amazing speed and his using his tail as a balance anchor, he also had that new staff that he could contort into different shapes that was giving him even more different angles to come at Shane. But he was doing his best to keep his cool. I suppose if he was going to learn anything he might as well fight the best he could. Kane and josh were rather amusing. Kane was sluggishly using his flying powers to fly at josh. Who was smartly using the thrust from exploding his feet or hands to propel him in different directions, the girl with the whip hair couldn't do much other than use her hair as a distraction; however the sonic boom girl was using her sonic booms, much like josh to propel her in different directions, Leigh was swooping at Linda with his leathery wings and his legs resembled something like eagle talons. Linda however I was impressed with the most. She had managed to make herself float a little and hover around narrowly avoiding Leigh's swoops. I yelled out to Linda and said "good job" she had little attention that she could turn to me, but gave me a thumbs up anyway. All in all I was quite impressed with some people's ingenuity towards the task. Before I had time to act angel had scooped me off the ground and grabbed me around the waist. And flew me up to the top of the hall again, I gulped down some air and looked up to her face she was smiling a rather evil smile, before I accidentally burst out and said:

"Ah man…not again!" she looked rather hurt and was quick to respond with

"Oh! Fine then!" she kissed me on the top of my head and then she let me go. She actually let me go! I had little time to respond before the ground hit me hard, but I shot my hand up towards the roof and it stuck to the top of the roof and there I was suspended by my tentacles about two meters from the ground. I stared up at angel and gave her an evil look

"You dropped me!" I yelled back at her, she laughed and circled around my tentacles.

"You let yourself be dropped! And anyway you deserved it!" I totally didn't think I did. But obviously she was just playing. I would have imagined that me standing there hanging three meters from the ground suspended by blood red tentacles would have been quite an odd site. I looked up to Nikki again that had that same mischievous smile she flicked her left wing a little and a rather large feather sprouted from her wing. It shot out like a bullet and it was about the size of my hand. It landed in the middle of all my tentacles I was suspended by and cut them off; they were razor sharp I tumbled to the ground and landed with a loud thump in a heap. My severed tentacles soon returned to my hand. The others that were still suck on the roof still dissipated into nothingness, I thought that was quite bizarre. Mr Jackson blew the whistles and everyone stopped doing what they were doing and returned to the circle. Linda flipped me up with her powers as she was walking past and joined the group. I threw her a quizzical look as if to say "when did you get so powerful" she just smiled and ignored the rest of my looks. Nikki stood next to me with her hands on her hips

"Look who won that one blood boy!" I rolled my eyes and joined her with walking back to the group Mr Jackson stood in front of us and gave us all a look individually

"You all did quite well! I am impressed with the ingenuity of all of you. Simply ingenious all of you, however I'm going to award the most impressive defensive display of skills is going to go to young josh cook here. Isolating his explosions to exert thrust in optimized directions, truly genius my boy!" Josh waved and accidentally exploded his hand in the process, everyone laughed. Mr Jackson finally shushed after he had a bit of a chuckle himself

"Ok everybody you are all dismissed. Except for blood, the blue flame, and the kitsune I would like to see you all please" Linda and Leigh waved and left they said they were going to sit in the main nature quad. Josh and Kane tapped me on the back and said "don't be a stranger blood" and walked off. The other two girls looked at us three and giggled and ran out of the hall snickering to themselves, I rolled my eyes. Nikki didn't leave she kept her arm around me after she got the nod of approval from Mr Jackson. Shane and Kyle kept trying not to look at Nikki, it was rather odd not too mention uncomfortable. She broke the silence first

"Hey guys how you doing? funny that were in the same dorm but we never really got to know each other" Kyle and Shane nodded at her and kept up the awkward silence. Nikki kept on

"Hey blue flame is it? I really like your hair, that's heaps cool!" finally I think she tripped on a topic that Shane loved (his powers) after that everyone was talking freely Shane explained to her how he thought his powers worked and just exactly what he could do with them. So did Kyle as well after he let her touch his tail. Which I swear had since doubled in length. I was looking forward to talking to Mr Jackson; I could finally ask him about the snake faction. He stepped towards us all and gave us a bit of a look before he spoke

"Have you all thought about what I said the other day?" We all nodded and Nikki did her best not to look nosey. Jackson Holmes faced Kyle first

"And you m'boy I noticed you figured out a way to be offensive, I'm quite impressed. Exerting your control over nature to contort that stick into different shapes" Kyle smile and enjoyed the praise. He pulled the stick out his pocket and spinned his stick in the palm of his hand.

"And you Mr riddle have you figured out a way to sustain your fire for longer?" Shane raised one eyebrow and ran his fingers through his flame hair

'actually yes, I figured if I keep some part of me on fire all the time, it would build up my endurance to it, and become like a second nature to me" the professor nodded and then looked to me

"And you young Navar, any new developments? I heard you had a talk with the professor, simply brilliant man, only person in the world to every be able to map the basic factors of the mutant gene" I shook my head. I really didn't have anything new to say. I hadn't figured out how to increase my powers beyond the blood suit. Mr Jackson turned his gaze to Nikki

"It is quite a shame you didn't join the team as well young lady, you would have been a great asset" she smiled and said thank you. Mr Jackson nodded and began to leave the dorm when I yelled out to him as Shane and Kyle looked at me

"Mr Jackson! Um I was wondering what you could tell us about the snake faction, I mean were going against them and we have like no idea what to expect at all" Mr Jackson looked towards the floor and tapped his fingers together

"Dark and mysterious that snake faction, there lead by the reclusive Crispin black, he's a total oddball that one. He trains his faction like they were in the army. They have morning exercise routine's and its even been rumoured that he even puts them through some sort of martial arts routine as well, everyone in the snake faction are sworn to secrecy to never reveal the secrets of their training rituals. I tell you that mans a right royal bad egg. His codename is "venom" and I'd keep damn clear of him if I was you. He doesn't like non- snake faction peoples much. He doesn't even associate with the other staff members other than the professor. I've only seen him a couple of times myself" this was curious, I never imagined that they would undergo a training regime in their faction, but I suppose it made sense. Most of their powers were defensive. But coupled with martial arts, many of them could be quite a deadly force to be reckoned with. Mr Jackson then kneeled down so he could get really close to us.

"that's not to say, that if someone was to indeed see that training regime they wouldn't' have a massive advantage over their element of surprise" and then pursed his fingers to his lips and stood up. And said very loudly as he walked out of the room

"I'd stay well away from that Crispin black if I was you, been known to be able to smell fear he has" and walked out the hall

Angel ducked from under my arms and stood in front of the three of us

"You know now that you mention it, grace has never mentioned anything about the snake faction. I reckon she might help us. Nav if you hang with me tomorrow we might be able to convince her to help us" it was true, grace was quite a good friend to Nikki, she even knew Nikki before they came here. There was a big possibility she would help us. Not to mention, she was damn hot too (not that, that had any relevance to anything) Shane stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder. My whole body wanted to cut off his hand. But I knew I couldn't give in to such emotions.

"Does that mean you want to help us angel? Nikki laughed a little and tapped her fingers together evilly

"Of course, oooh baby I'm in! Kyle laughed and stepped forward.

"Ok so what we need is a plan. I reckon I have an idea on how to influence our wristwatch displays on a completely basic level that would allow us to be able to at least on an appearance level go in undetected. Nav if you go with angel tomorrow and try and get some help from this grace girl even some information if possible, Shane and I will try and brainstorm some ideas with the guys. And we'll see what we come up with later tomorrow. We all nodded in agreement. And headed our separate ways, Shane and Kyle left to find the others. And Nikki and I decided we would spend the rest of the night together. We spent most of it talking about obscene ideas about how we could sneak into the snake faction.

CHAPTER 16

Into the belly of the snake

In the morning all of us woke up and brainstormed some ideas of how we could sneak into the snake faction. Linda Leigh and Nikki included; we were all sitting in the middle of the room in a circle.

"We need more information I think. I mean, we really can't say anything till we know the specifics" said Linda as she looked at Nikki

"So by specifics, mean me, and by me, we mean grace right? Said Nikki as she pointed at herself. She was wearing a large black jumper that came just to her knees. Some black hotpants and a pink shirt underneath. She looked rather great.

"Yep, that's the one" I said as I put my arm around Nikki, I pulled her closer to me and she leant against me a little.

"Who's grace?" questioned Kyle. Hiding as much ill content as he could

"Grace is my friend, we were even friends before we came here" Kyle nodded and busied himself with picking prickles out of his tail.

"How can grace help us though?" asked Shane in his usual, to the point style of thinking

"Grace is a member of the snake clan Shane." Shane concentrated for a little and then started looking at his hands, for what reason I had no idea

"Yeah but as far as I know all people in the snake faction are sworn to secrecy about what goes on in there. One of those girls that follows me around all time is in the snake faction. And she never tells me anything!" before anyone else could say anything else Linda interjected

"Just because you can't get it out her Shane, doesn't mean other people cant you know!" Nikki squeezed my hand a little bit. I think she thought a fight was about to break up. Truth be told these two were always like this. And it was always up to one of us to diffuse the situation. I took the torch this time because I was not in the mood for more arguing and we really needed some ideas to come along from this meeting

"What Linda was TRYING to say Shane is that, Grace was nikki's friend before we got here, so there's a higher chance of her telling us something. Has she told you anything about it Nikki?" Nikki sighed a little amount of relief that I was sure only I could feel. And Linda rolled her eyes at me as Shane busied himself with his powers again.

"Um not much really, she knows she's not supposed to say anything, but I do know she doesn't like it though, she's always coming out for dinner heaps pissed off and stuff. And she always tries to procrastinate going back as much she can. That's why Im always up early so I can meet her so she doesn't get bored more so, this is why I think she might help us. She really hates the snake faction I think" this was a great move in the right direction. Also it explained why she had to leave early every morning as well. Linda spoke next, using her best organisational voice, Linda always loved keeping everyone organised, and as a matter of fact I could almost swear this was how her power got imprinted on her gene. By her need to organise things

"Ok so. If nav and Nikki go talk to grace, Shane you go to talk to that girl that's in the snake faction, she might tell you something. Kyle Leigh and I will stay here and try to work on some other ideas and brainstorm some random plans before we get more specifics"

We all nodded and set off on our way. It was breakfast time so Nikki knew exactly where to find grace. I still wasn't sure why Nikki wanted to help so much. I decided now would be a good time to ask her

"Hey Nikki… I was just wondering, aren't you afraid your going to get into trouble or something?" Nikki laughed and then looked at me and poked a finger into my chest

"Why aren't you afraid your going to get in trouble?" I really hadn't thought about it. But I never imagined me getting in trouble. I couldn't really figure out what they could punish me with anyway. I don't think they would activate my inhibitor to stop my power, besides as I learnt before for me it only made it harder for me to use my power, it didn't switch it off entirely which I found quite odd at the time. I knew I wouldn't get expelled because the professor was so fond of me (or my powers) that I don't think he would let me leave. At this point the only problem was if phoenix found out. And at this point we weren't doing anything illegal anyway. We were just talking to one of Nikki's friends

"I don't know why I'm not scared of getting found out. I thought at first it was because the professor really likes me, but now that I think about it, maybe its coz I'm doing it with you?" Nikki laughed and elbowed me in the ribs

"awww… your such a complete…Suck up!" I laughed and blushed a little bit. Heavens forbid I was fair new to all these things.

We walked through a bunch of corridors I had never seen before and every time we turned a corner the facility grew a little darker, it was as if we were following the Institutes natural decay. It was quite odd. I pointed this out to Nikki as we were walking

"Why does it keep getting darker and creepier the further we go? and where the hell we going anyway!?" nikki rolled her eyes and stopped me and pointed up to the roof there was a very subtle serpent running along the top of the wall it was silver and reflected the light subtly. What the hell was with this faction anyway?

"Were going to meet grace remember? But we got up so early that I was going to surprise her. However it also means that we can get a sneak peak at where were trying to sneak into"

I stopped looking at the roof and looked at Nikki

"You know, your fantastic nikki? You know that?" she looked at me and when to make a yawning action

"Course I know that silly" I rolled my eyes, and for a minute we just stood there kissing. I didn't want to move on, but I knew we had too. We navigated the hallways a little more and before too long we made it to somewhere near the entrance. However there was a massive black wire gate blocking the way to the entrance. The entrance looked as if it led down to a dungeon, Nikki and I waited by the gate for a while when suddenly the dungeon doors swang open, out walked a tall pale skinned man. He had poisonous green eyes, sallow skin and long greasy black hair. His fingers looked as if they were claws and his fingernails were shaped into points, he wore a long black cloak and had a species of snake around his neck I'd never seen before. He pushed some of his students aside and talked in a resentful snarling voice

"Make way you bunch of lowly miscreants. Ultima is coming through." All the students moved as if they were in an army unit. Curiously they were all wearing cloaks, I noted to myself that that would make it very helpful in sneaking in. (Nikki and I smiled at each other obviously sharing the same idea about the cloaks) Led up by the strange tall creepy guy, was a rather bulky looking character he had large arms and rather tanned skin, his eyes were a piercing brown but he had a sullen look about him. He was wearing his cloak but his hood was off, he nodded in obedience to something the tall man said, and with a deep resounding voice said

"Yes sir" and he slinked along kicking his feet and looking down to the ground. He hung up his black cloak on one of the many hooks that were across the wall between the entrance to the dungeon and the black gate we were standing at, he looked up and flinched a little when he saw us. It was at this point the tall black haired man saw us

"What matter of defiance is this? Get away from that gate at once you pack of insubordinates! "he threw the gate open and gestured to his other students to hang up there cloaks and get out of here. The man was quite intimidating. I heard Nikki whisper Crispin black in my ear. I figured she was most probably right. The way Mr Jackson described Crispin black I couldn't picture anyone else fitting the description more perfectly. He leered over us and grabbed my wrist and jerked it up to his face. He observed it for a minute and then a cruel smile wiped over his face showing his pointed rotting teeth

"If it isn't the professor's wonder child himself! And tell me what brings someone with such matter of…prestige all the way out to my humble quarters?" I was trembling a little. And I think he was starting to hurt me. Nikki was cowering a little herself. I really didn't know what to say, Crispin black just had a way to suck all the words out of your body somehow. I could only manage to stumble on my words and still come up with nothing, then suddenly from the other side of the hall somewhere near one of the cloaks stand grace ran over. She was wearing tight black jeans and a low cut purple top. Her fringe was angled to one side of her face and her beautiful eyes showed a twinkle of worry

"There here to pick me up sir" Crispin black sneered a little and let go of my wrist, he loomed over grace looking as terrifying as he could muster

"Is that so? Tell me this child. What about you thinks that you are above the rules that I set? Are you so high and mighty or more beautiful than the rest of us that you think your above the rules that I set?" grace started to get the same reaction I did, her mouth was moving but nothing was coming out. She did seem quite hurt though, she clenched her fist tight and stared directly into those poisonous eyes of Crispin black

"I'm not above anybody sir!" grace had a true amount of hurt in her eyes, and an amazing sense of resolve. No way would you get me to stand up to Crispin black like that. Crispin stole a look at all three of us and then gestured towards the end of the corridor.

"And don't you forget it child! Now all of you get out of my sight, nothing would please me more than see the schools "mascot" expelled. Oh and I do look forward to our next competition, don't you… blood?" I don't think either of us were afraid of using the excuse to get out of his sight. From the corner of my eye when we were walking away I noticed Crispin fawning over the big one called Ultima, something about him was unsettling, maybe it was just the fact that he was adored by Crispin black. I couldn't imagine the things Crispin black truly found adorable, probably some cute bunny that bit off the head of his owner or something. When we thought we reached a safe enough distance away from the snake factions' dungeon we all stopped to catch our breath Nikki spoke first

"Wow that was really close! What the hell's the deal with that guy anyway? What is he a vampire or something?

"He might as well be" said grace in a very hateful tone as she pushed her hair away from her eyes. Nikki stopped getting her breath and put her hand on grace's shoulder

"I knew you hated the snake faction, least I know why now" grace nodded and then turned her attention to me

"And hello Navar, and what do we owe the pleasure?" I smiled and went to tell her exactly why we went to meet her there, when Nikki pushed in front of me and started talking before me

"Well actually grace we were gonna ask you something?" grace raised an eyebrow a little and then put on a little bit of a suspicious face

"You do know I can read thought's Nikki?" something ticked over in my brain and I began to panic a little. No one told me grace could read thoughts! Man all those things I had been thinking about her, how I thought she was beautiful, I think there was a bead of sweat running down my forehead as I tried to think about the situation I was in, and what if she was reading my mind now too. I stood perfectly still and just tried to think about as little as possible. Nikki spoke next

"I also know that you can't use your powers against us. Hence you can't read our minds unless the inhibitors are lifted" I think I almost fell over I was so relieved. I pushed my hair up and resumed my aura of calm. I wasn't going to butt into Nikki and grace talking because I could tell Nikki was trying to play this one by tact

"Yeah, well. Anyway what do you want to know?" Nikki was sizing up grace, I assumed to find the best way to ask her the questions we needed answering

"You…hate the snake faction right?" said Nikki in a questioningly drawn out way. Grace was starting to feel uncomfortable with the questions, and was starting to suspect suspicious behaviour

"Yes nikki, you know that! I think everyone in there hates it, I mean it's mainly girls and Mr Black favourite's boys, and then even then. None of them compare to that stupid Ultima kid, He fucking worships the ground that kid walks on. So yes I hate the snake faction why?" Nikki straightened her face as best she could and stole a glance at me before she decided to speak again. I had very little else to but stand there and look awkward

"Well you know how were up against the snake faction for our next battle right?" by this time grace appeared to be getting quite annoyed with Nikki beating around the bush

"Nikki! What do you want!?" nikki seemed a little shocked but then sighed a little bit of relief and decided to just spit it out

"Well we want help sneaking into one of your training sessions if you could. You know it would give nav and his teams a real edge in their battle. Coz I hear there's some odd shit that goes down in those training sessions" grace seemed a little shocked. She started pacing around Nikki and I a little and looking at the ground. Finally she stopped pacing and looked up at us

"You know what Mr black will do if he catches you doing this?" I thought it was about time I said something, considering Nikki was doing this for me in the first place. And she'd done more then her share of talking

"Grace, I'm quite willing to take on the consequences of this. I just ask if you can help us do it. And hey if you hate snake faction so much Why the hell not eh?" grace looked a little shocked at me, I suppose she expected Nikki to do all the talking she gave me a silent nod and then we started walking towards the main hall.

"so what do you think we need to get in Gracie?" questioned nikki I was more entranced in the reverse effect of the facility itself, before we were walking into the decay like the snake faction was a disease I never imagined that someone would build a place that does that, it just doesn't seem practical, I was admiring the roof when I felt an elbow in my ribs. It was grace

"Nav pay attention. If I'm gonna help you, least you can do is pay attention!" I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly and smiled at her and gestured that I was listening

"You know he does that ALL the time!" I looked at Nikki in a puzzled way

"Does what?" asked grace before I got time to ask it myself

"Gets lost in his thoughts all the time I swear if he wasn't tethered to his body he'd probably just float off" now they were both just gossiping about me a totally new thing for me. But I was almost sure I didn't like it.

"Hey c'mon here! Anyway grace you have my attention, if you can tear yourselves from talking about me, I'm willing to hear what I missed" grace smiled at nikki and laughed a little, after they had a good laugh grace looked at me as we turned another corner and began to speak

"I was saying that its going to be hard to get in because Mr black randomly checks people's wristbands sometimes. Personally I think its coz he forgets who's actually in his faction other than Ultima and those girls he makes follow him around. "this was a problem that we thought about before. And we hadn't really come up with a clear cut solution to it yet, and then it dawned on me. Roden! He could alter machines and he loved those wristbands as well, maybe he would help us. He seemed pretty cool last time.

"Girls I have an idea! I have to go I'le probably see you at breakfast!"

"But nav, ah forget it… I'le see you later babe!" babe, she called me babe. I was recoiling from it that for a couple of seconds I forgot what I was doing. I looked over at Nikki she was standing with her hands on her hips and did a shooing action. Then I remembered, I started running towards the direction of the medical bay. Which I thought was always near the dormitory. As I left I noticed the other two girls; Kat and Melissa joined their group. But I had no time to focus on that. I was still running when I realised I had never been to the medical bay. Even more why did we have a medical bay? With the Institute nurse that looked like she could fix anything and those odd orange healing orbs that appear in the competitions it didn't really make sense. But I suppose you should have one in any case, perhaps legal reasons? Or to plainly keep up appearances?. I passed our dorm door as Leigh was walking down the steps

"Hey nav, how did it go?" I kept running and yelled out so Leigh could hear

"Tell ya later, or ask angel!" I think he said something else but I disappeared around a corner and couldn't hear him anymore. Then before me, after turning two more corners was the medical bay. It was a rather small and pitiful room considering against the sheer scale of the Institute itself, it had a nurses office which had the rather attractive school nurse doing some sort of paperwork the office itself was quite well equipped, past her office cubicle that was mostly made of glass anyway. Was four beds in a row all with curtains you could pull around over them, all were empty except for the last one. I remember the professor saying Roden had suffered some amount of grievous injuries from being trampled on in the last competition and that he was staying here to heal his wounds. I ran straight to the curtain around the fourth bed. And pulled it across, there on the bed was nothing. Nothing at all, from behind me stormed the nurse

"What the heck is the meaning of this young man…oh it's you Mr Keelan, how can I help you?" I was used to a little amount of special treatment from some of the students but from faculty, and this obvious, well it was just a little odd, I kinda stumbled on my words a little, mostly coz I was so disappointed that Roden wasn't there

"There…kid…um…Roden?" The nurse chuckled a little and pushed one of her perfect dark brown bangs away from her face

"Roden Mc'miles was sent home yesterday" this surprised me a lot, I never really thought about the possibility of going home. Nor did I ever really think anyone would want to leave. I loved it here; I suppose not everyone loved this place as much as I did

"People can go home?" I asked, the nurse chuckled again and moved herself to one of the beds and picked up a chart

"They sure can, he was escorted by Mr Phoenix himself, by golly what a privilege that would have been, shame you didn't come in a day earlier too. Whole time he was unconscious he kept rambling off how "cool" you were and all your random mathematical possibilities of your power. Quite an odd kid that Roden" naturally it had to be phoenix madden that did it, that bastard was always a thorn in my side ever since the dark forces class. Still there was no way phoenix could have predicted this anyway. So it was obviously just dumb luck. Still there was something that was still bugging me

"Nurse, why do we even have a medical bay if you can heal any wound? the nurse laughed and sat down on one of the beds across from me

"Firstly you need one, no matter what the circumstance legal reasons you know, secondly I cant heal every wound. And after those competitions I go into healing regression for a couple of days, hence why we need a medical bay, and furthermore why poor Roden wasn't healed immediately. Poor thing I can generally only heal the wounds if there fresh, it's quite hard for me to heal old wounds. Tell you what he chose a right royal time to get hurt he did" I scratched the back of my head and nodded to her. Then my stomach rumbled and I decided to go back to breakfast. A little depressed at a perfect plan ruined.

After lunch we all sat outside away from the teachers and decided to brainstorm a little more with the new information we had. Shane and Kyle both tried to fight over who got to sit closer to grace which I thought was quite humorous. The argument was quickly ended when Linda sat Kyle down forcefully so that Shane couldn't get the seat; Shane rolled his eyes and took a seat next to me. And grace blushed a little; as per usual Linda led the discussion as she so seemed to take pleasure in doing so.

"ok so what have we learned guys, any big ideas?" Linda was wearing a long black leather coat and three quarter black jeans and some random black shirt with a tattooed rose on it. I decided I would talk first, more so because everyone was wondering about my random absence at the earlier part of breakfast

"Oh, well that Roden guy right he can like interface with machines and stuff right? A couple of people clicked on fairly easy. I decided to further explain myself for the purpose of everyone

"Well, grace was telling me that Crispin black randomly searches people's wristwatches for some reason, and I was going to see if he wanted to help us. But he wasn't there, apparently escorted off the premises by phoenix madden himself" I saw Linda and Leigh roll there eyes. Shane was too busying watching Kyle entertain grace by making the grass around her grow different heights, Shane subtly set the fire next to Kyle on fire, Kyle yelped a little until Linda threw the fire in Shane's face with her power. Everybody found that quite amusing. Kyle was the one who spoke next

"I think I may be able to work with the wristwatches, at least on a basic level anyway. If I can get some plain Teflon I may be able to encode. A simple cover that we could put on our wristwatches that would look fairly effective on a basic glance

"Ok so we got that covered. What else?" said Linda, as she again tried to speed the conversation along

"Well we still need to get some of those cloaks" said Nikki and she pushed her head into my lap

"They wear…cloaks?" said Shane a little enviously grace laughed and nodded

"Yes they do, as far as cloaks go. I think I should be able to get some. But who's going to go?" asked grace. This was actually something we had completely overlooked Obviously we all couldn't go, it would look to suspicious for grace to steal that many cloaks.

"Well obviously we can't all go (Linda snuck a look at Shane) so we should probably take those that are most valuable to sneaking in there" said Linda in a very informative tone

"Well I think the first person who has to go is nav" said grace. Which quite shocked me, and made all the grass Kyle was mucking around with wilt, I snuck a smile at grace and she begin to explain herself again

"Mostly because he's the most important person in your battle And he's going to be the one that needs to see the training ritual the most." Kyle fell back on himself, and Shane's hair momentarily flared down to his normal hair. Shane preened himself back up, and mustered up his words to speak next

"I wouldn't go as far as to say the most important of the battle…" Linda stole the chance to ruin's Shane pride before anyone else even managed to think of a comeback

"Shane, you were in that battle. Maybe it was a little different from where were sitting, but nav totally saved all your asses in that battle." Shane flared his hair up a little and began to attack back

"Next battle will be different! I can sustain my flame almost double the length I could before, and! Im not against some rock headed idiot this time" yet again these two were in the thick of another argument. I started to think about why Shane had so many enemies, I really didn't understand it. It was Leigh who spoke next

"Look! The important thing is. Nav needs to go in. firstly it was his idea, and it's Nikki's friend who helping us in the first place. That alone means nav goes in. let alone his impressive battle talents" this shocked me a little, I have never really gotten much time to know Leigh, and it always surprised me when he worked against the character I had of him. Nevertheless he was right. Funny that no one asked me if I wanted to go in though.

"Ok so we have nav, that's one cloak, I'm thinking around four should be easy enough to get so three more, oh and I want Nikki to come, so you have two left" that solved that problem fairly easy. Kyle got up from where he was lying and interjected for the second time in this conversation

"I think the most logical two to go would be the other two that are actually in the hero duelling competition, and anyway shouldn't this occurred to us in the first instance?" naturally Kyle was right, funny that it didn't occur to us though. I thought I would start to lead this conversation. Mostly because I wanted to see what Linda would do

"Ok so then we have whose going, we have a way to alter our wristwatch display, so now we just need somewhere to do it" Linda looked a little angry and Shane smiled at me a little

"I got it! it's almost perfect!" spluttered nikki as if she had word vomit like I used to get all the time

"Got what nikki?" I asked Nikki (who had just recently got her head off my lap) beamed at all of us and tapped her fingers evilly

"Ok so tomorrow we have a faction's class right! When the class is done we can just sneak back with the snake faction and it'll be that easy!" Linda made an "of course" gesture with her arm and then nodded to Nikki

"That's almost perfect Nikki, I can help you get lost in the crowd as well…oh um by the way do you guys know about green fire?" asked Grace. As soon as Shane heard this he peaked up and leant forward to learn more

"Green fire what's that grace?" Shane said as if he had a pen and notebook in his hands

"It's one of Mr Blacks' powers. He can control green fire; it's a flame that's essentially poisonous. It doesn't actually spread, but the flame will never stop burning, like ever. One kid accidentally got burnt by it and he had to get it cut out of him. The only reason I'm saying this is, that there are lanterns of this stuff all around. So just watch you don't get touch it okay" Shane was almost frothing at the mouth when grace finished the sentence. You could see him picturing it in his mind engulfed in green flame

"Can you control flame Shane? Or like what?" Shane saw this as his chance to impress as Linda rolled her eyes and started talking to Leigh Shane flamed his hand on fire and began concentrating on a fireball in his hands. Slowly it sculpted into a rose, it was actually kinda beautiful

"Wow Shane…that's so cool! Can I like touch it?" Shane nodded you could tell he was more than pleased with himself. Then just from where grace was sitting grew a rose from the ground itself. I turned over to Kyle who was also quite proud of himself. I looked at Nikki and we both roller our eyes. Grace thanked Kyle for the rose and congratulated Shane on the flame rose he made, but just before she went to go pick it up the rose burst into flame, grace looked a little shocked, she rolled her eyes and said she was going back to the her dorm to try and grab some cloaks while no one was looking, in the background Kyle was giving Shane a god awful stare. Soon after grace had even left Shane was detailing everybody in the usefulness of fire that would never go out, and how he could conserve so much energy, so much so that he could beat anybody. Even Andy! We spent the rest of the day talking and chatting. Kyle and I played a little game of grass chess he devised he could do. And Nikki left to go with her friends somewhere around lunch time. After that Kyle rushed off to the computer room to grab the Teflon tags. I spent the rest of the day staring at the sky.

CHAPTER 17

The snake faction

Today was the day of the faction's seminar. Apparently many of the faculty have received complaints about the factions they were placed in and wanted to be transferred. So the professor thought it would be a good idea to have a seminar to explain the specifics of each group, their strengths and weaknesses and possibly more. I woke up at about 8 (the seminar was on at 11) everyone else was still sleeping in because it was a Sunday, so I decided to pat Kovu for a while till everyone woke up. Kovu wasn't on my bed so I kinda just sat there awake. Then from the left side of my bed I felt a tug. I looked down expecting Kovu. It was Nikki! Se was still in a bra and a g-string, beyond her looking so amazing, I nearly fell off my bed not to mention there was the whole surprise that she was there in the first place. I went to say something and she placed her finger on my lips. I mouthed a silent "what the hell" she just smiled at me and grabbed my hand, she slinked me towards the bathroom. I still had no idea what was going on but with what she was wearing I was quite willing to follow her till the ends of the earth. Finally she pushed me into the bathroom and shut the door and leant against it giggling.

"Can I talk now?" she smiled some more at me

"Yes" I was still having trouble concentrating

"What the hell is going on?" she looked around a little more and smiled

"Disappointed?" there was no way, no possible way that this was a disappointing start to my morning. I was still so distracted by this half naked –possibly the most beautiful woman in the world- leaning against the bathroom door smiling at me. I did manage to shake my head though. She walked up to me a little and looked towards the door, in a slight whispering voice said;

"I wanted to show you something" I was still totally entranced it was like I was a deer to the headlights of a car. I imagined I probably looked completely retarded, standing there gawking. If this was what she wanted so show me. Her in a black bra and black undies, it was more than worth it

"Um…I mean…ugh….what?" I couldn't get a word out. Nothing came out; I said it perfectly in my head, but then when my head met the vision in front of me it just rooted itself. Nikki laughed and pirouetted herself and leant into me, taking extra care to push herself near the lower part of my body

"Not me you perve!" I think I probably blushed so hard my cheeks exploded. She put her finger up to shush me again, and then grew her wings. They spread out over the long bathroom. There was a bunch of shower cubicles. A rather large bath, probably more of a spa than a bath, it was lavishly decorated with warm brown tiles and cream textured floors. It was quite a nice bathroom and had a warm clean feel to it. Rather large enough to fit in some four meters of white angel wings. Nikki smiled at me and gestured towards her wing. It swooped near me and touched my shoulder. It felt strange odd different. Like it had an odd coating over the wings, Nikki spoke next

"I like had a dream about it. And then it was like this when I woke up!" I still didn't understand what she was talking about. Either that or it was because my brain was working at half capacity

"Like…um what?" Nikki looked around and then saw a palm on one of the sides of the massive mirror that adorned the bathroom, she thrust her wing at it, and when the wing made contact it sliced it clean, that's what the odd feeling was, like her wings had become bladed.

"Wow that's so awesome. You have a more offensive power than before I'm heaps glad for you!" she smiled and retracted her wings. She tranced her way to me and pushed me into a shower.

"I thought we'd celebrate!" the shower water came on the top of us while we were kissing. I was totally in over my head least the water felt great though. I had to say something, anything

"I um…what?" Nikki laughed as she pulled her mouth away from mine

"Nav your such an idiot, Shut up and don't ruin it" she backed away from me and undid her bra. I think I almost fainted. I fell back a little into one of the taps and then yelped a little. Nikki laughed and proceeded to do away with the rest of her clothing. Her body was perfect in everyway, she was perfectly tanned, and her skin tone was completely unblemished. At least she was perfect to me. She threw herself on me and fumbled around with my pyjama pants till they dropped to the floor soaking up the water. Nikki pushed herself against me. And I remember everything being either the best feeling of warmth and pleasure.

At about 10:30 we all decided to leave for the faction's seminar. I still couldn't look at Nikki without imagining what happened just before; we tried to keep our distance as to not make it look suspect. I couldn't focus on anything. Not one thing, my mind just kept reeling back to what happened back in the bathroom; it was one of the best experiences in my life. I took a moment to think about how my life had changed. Everything was better, not just some things, every single thing in my life was better. And I was so happy, I've never been so happy before, this was the first time in my life I wanted to be alive. As a matter of fact I think I was in love. At least I think I was, I didn't know what love was, I don't think anyone know what love really is. But if it was this feeling of my life being glossed over everything looked brighter, everything was better. I was distracted by grace running up the hall way with a backpack. She was wearing a baggy white jumper that looked like it had wall paper on it and black short shorts. She smiled at us and threw the bag at us.

"It's got the cloaks in it. Follow my signal near the end of the seminar otay? I gotta go back to the group now. Good luck guys see you later!" Kyle and Shane both tried to wave to grace at the same time. Linda and Leigh rolled their eyes at each other. And Kyle jumped in front of all us after he was sure grace couldn't see him anymore

"Ok guys I got the Teflon stickers. They should fit straight into your displays. Ok nav. Your codename is silver. And you can melt metal. Shane your codename is Rothkin. And you can control flames. Nikki your name is medusa and you can control water. And I am dragon and I can control creatures" he handed all our display tags and we put them in our pockets. Nikki and I looked at each other for the first time in a while and tried to choke down each others laughter

We all tested to see if our displays worked properly, and sure enough they worked exactly as Kyle said they would I slipped mine in and it covered over my original display and said silver and had a snake logo. My orange swirl that represented that personal shield I got given was gone. It was all quite odd. A couple of us congratulated Kyle and we walked into the main hall for the seminar, Shane still muttering to himself about green flame.

The hall was decorated with great banners of there retrospective houses under the raven banner stood Mr Jackson looking rather pleased with himself. Next along under the yellow and red banner was phoenix madden wearing his team cloak again. And pretending like everyone was looking at him. Next was a very reluctant Crispin black. Looking away from the crowd and keeping a watchful eye on that one kid he called Ultima at all times. In the centre of it all was the professor wearing his usual white coat and his spectacles. Fortunately for us the tables were not clearly defined so we sat ourselves as close to the mass of the snake faction people. They were all wearing their cloaks over there clothes. That was going to complicate things. I sat next to nikki. She was wearing a short denim mini skirt. And a random white t-shirt she bought when we went shopping and that scarf with the angel wing on it, it was still hard not to picture her like she was before. Linda kept looking at us quite queerly. It was making me very uncomfortable. Kyle was looking around excitedly, Shane was still muttering to himself about green flame. Leigh was looking up at some of the staff members. And yet Linda was still looking at me, I did my best not to pay attention. Before long the professor called for silence and in no time, he indeed got it.

"Welcome, welcome children. As you quite know today is a seminar on all your retrospective houses. So please make yourselves comfortable and I well tell you of each of your retrospective's factions strengths and weakness and even the history behind there origins and namesakes. If you will all turn your attention to the first banner of black and purple, so called the raven house. The raven house represents the unknown, a dark and mysterious creature with a constant symbolism of duality. The black colour is the identity of raven faction itself. Because black is the presence of every colour, what this means indeed is that had you been placed in the raven faction, you are there to grow. Your powers have yet to manifest in their entirety, in raven you a nurtured in a growing basis. Because your powers have only to get stronger, however as such the downfall of raven faction is quite obvious, your powers are unpredictable and sometimes quite uncontrollable, and thus need to be given a wide birth within certain parameters. The point I'm trying to explain to you students is this. That no matter what house you are, you have your strengths and your weakness's. anyway, each house has a history behind them, which is why we chose each houses retrospective emblems and namesakes. The history behind the raven faction itself is quite interesting. It tells a story of a bunch of rouges, much like yourselves. Who were set out to save the world from tyrannic evil. Along this quest the rouges powers grew and grew, and one more than the others, his name is long lost to time as it were. But this man grew quite powerful, but in the end had to sacrifice himself for the good of the earth itself. It however has been told that this man was then reborn into a raven back to the presence of his soul mate to whom he gave a feather of his wing. It has been told that the reborn raven was also missing a feather, this is why in some incantations of the raven you will notice he is missing a feather. And of course to watch over the earth he so valiantly saved. And such is the history of the raven faction, a faction given to the strength of growth and mystery." There was some loud applause from the crowd. Most of it coming from raven faction themselves. I found this quite interesting; it appeared that from what I could gather at this point that every faction was based on a tale of hero lore. The idea of there being hero lore was still quite foreign to me. I was still so confused about this whole idea of being a part of a society of superheroes. Did they really expect us all to save the world one day? I had little time to think about it more because the professor soon continued.

"if you will please your attention next to the middle banner, of red and yellow that of the proud and righteous lion faction. To be a part of the lion faction, it to be strong, fiercely offensive, and proud of your abilities. The colours themselves serve to show a regal stature to those that lie within the lion faction. Yellow the colour used by Chinese to endow on their royalty, as only they deserved such a prestigious colour, and red the colour of countless high courts of kings and noblemen, It is within these that you ascertain the values of the lion faction, much like the lion themselves, always proud and strong and so rightly called the king of jungle for its glorious royal stature among the standings of beasts. However with a lion, it is merely a lion, there is no matter of duplicity of a lion no matter of odd fables of linking to curious incidents of mystery. And here lies the weakness of the lion faction. Where you are powerfully offensive, you are what you are. There is no room for growth, you have the powers you have and nothing more. Your powers will grow stronger, oh trust me that. However you will not gain new one's like the lucky people of raven faction. As well as this, people in the lion faction lack the art of defence as well. But then has it not always been said that a best defence is a good offence. The story of the lion's factions namesake is quite an interesting one. It tells of a great African warrior who wore a lion head as his helm, who freed his land of those who would wish to harm it. But so prideful was this man that he chose to conquer more, and more. All for the name of good, and so he battled through and through, not taking one look back always looking forward. And to when the hero stopped to see what he had conquered he saw that he had nothing, but half broken towns. Bruised battered and distressed townspeople and the hero atoned for his ways. But not before, after being so headstrong and leaving nothing defended, was everything he atoned for taken away from him. And let this be a lesson to all of you, not just to those in lion faction: that pride is a deadly sin for a reason. And such is the history of the prideful and prestigious lion group." everyone applauded again, most loud of them was phoenix madden, who was clapping like a madman full of prideful boast. I thought to myself that he could have used some of the advice the professor just dealt. The professor walked over to the snake faction and began to speak again

"And next my dear children are the final of our prestigious factions. The deadly and deceptive snake faction, to be a part of the snake faction, you are cunning, intelligent and able to play both sides of the card. You can keep a cool head in the middle of the battle. And to know that one of the most important lessons to learn is, why fight your enemies? When you can make them fight each other? The colours themselves represent my point furthermore. Green, the colour of nature, but isn't nature itself a deceptive beast? The most colourful and beautiful creatures on this earth also happen to be the most venomous, so cunning that they attract there pray with beauty and deception, with out having to even hunt themselves, why hunt when the prey will come to you? Silver serves to back these ideals up, what empire has not been formed by the bloodshed from forged steal? A regal colour indeed, but with it own duplicitous nature indeed. The creature; a snake or serpent if you will is often the master of deception hiding in tree's and always beautifully blended into the environment in which it intends to hunt. And thus shall I tell you the story of the snake factions' namesake. There was once a great villain, a true terrible plight on this land. He went by the name of snake. He raised millions in his cause of evil, until he finally raised all that would wish this earth harm. And with one fell stroke, destroyed every single of them, ridding the land of nearly all who would ever wish the planet harm, soon after he gave the planet back to those who would deserve it, and lived his life through the many years of peace he himself created, within this children there is a great moral in this story, many thought snake to be evil. But it was not evil that motivated his agenda, no it was peace, in hindsight would you not say snake was a great visionary giving the earth many beautiful years of peace by simply playing both ends of the game? And so snake faction serves to tell us. That you do not need the power to destroy a city to indeed to destroy it, when sometimes the most powerful power is deceit, cunning and intelligence; however as with every faction there is a clear weakness. Met with a true physical force with no matter of subduing the foe with charm, charisma or wit, those within the snake faction would be easily subdued." There was another loud applause and a small sneering clap even from Crispin black himself. The professor gestured for silence again and began to summarise his speech

"And so in my conclusion I urge you to think about the things I have told you here. That you have all been placed in the group you are in for your own good. There is no faction more powerful than any other. Each have its own strengths and weaknesses, and you have to been placed in the faction you are to nurture your abilities you were given. Thank you students that will be all!" before I had time to think about it, nikki nudged me and pointed over to grace who gestured in a round about way as if to say "when everyone stands up quickly come and join me" And within seconds the chairs clamoured and everyone got up and headed for the exit. Shane, Kyle Nikki and I took this chance for a distraction we slipped our cloaks on and ran over to grace. She spoke from the side of her mouth and whispered

"Get behind me in perfect lines when we all do. And put your damn cloaks on!" then from behind us bumped Crispin black as he threw me to the side

"Out of the way you miscreants, let the boy through now." Crispin black pushed everybody out of the way so that Ultima kid could lead the pack, then from Ultima down everyone got in perfect lines. Two by two and started marching behind Crispin black as he lead us towards the decay of the building that led us to his dungeon were everyone slept. We got to the large black gate and I tapped grace on the back and gestured to the cloak hooks. She shook her head and then acted like nothing happened. I assumed they only hung them on their way out. Crispin black gestured at the gates and they swung open. He led us to the door that led to the black cobblestone door that led to the dungeon; from the distance you could see the feint glimmers of the green flames. Obviously numerous lanterns lit the dungeon. My heart was starting to beat rapidly. It was like I was leading myself to my execution. I choked back some air as silently as I could and felt for Nikki's hand. Its reassurance left me a little more grounded. The stairs down to the dungeon were about three people wide, halfway down the stairs stood Crispin black silhouetted perfectly by a green flame candle burning behind him. His face looked more evil and poisonous than before. He was checking every third or so persons wristband Nikki squeezed my hand, I squeezed it back this whole idea was rather terrifying. Then the person before me got checked, luckily it was grace, Crispin black sneered and sent her on her way, I squeezed Nikki's hand in joy, she squeezed it back and we walked straight past the terrifying avatar that was Crispin black. Until a cruel bony hand grabbed my shoulder, and wrenched me back towards him, I let go of nikki's hand and made sure my head was down, I was quite sure my heart was about to jump out of its chest.

"You…boy. wristband now." I pulled my wristband up to his height he wrenched my wrist closer to his face, grabbing a deadly hold on my wrist. He looked at it for quite a while and then wrenched it down. My heart skipped a beat.

"Silver eh? I don't think I remember you child. Fortunate however with a ridiculously weak power of yours, Im almost glad I didn't. Ridiculous power such as yours, I must make due note not to let you anywhere near my precious Ultima. Let me look at your miserable face so I can note you." He wrenched my face up. And began to start pulling my cloak off, this was it he was going to find out. I was going to be sent home, denied the first place I was ever happy, defied the most beautiful and amazing girl I ever met. Just as he pulled the cloak off my face there was nothing. Darkness, the candle behind Crispin had gone out. He quickly wrenched my face down so it looked back at the ground. I couldn't believe it. It was such a strange feeling, as if I had just been given a present. A present of my old beautiful friend darkness

"What matter of treachery is this? Green flame does not go out, it does not die, it burns eternally! All of you idiots get out of my sight while I try and figure this out. Get out of here!" I didn't need anymore chance than that I walked as fast as I could and saw grace was at the end of the stairs she sighed a great amount of relief and gestured to nikki who was near her around a corner almost sobbing she looked so happy when she saw us. If not as confused as we were about the oddness of what happened. Grace whisked us away to a vacant room where we could talk. She closed the door and locked it. There was a quite a large audible sigh from all of us. Nikki ran straight up to me and hugged me so hard we fell over

"I thought you were going to get expelled!" she locked her lips on mine, and I was drowning in that beautiful sense of joy and happiness again. Drowning and I never wanted to be rescued ever. Rudely grace interrupted my requiem of joy

"What the hell happened there, how did you guys manage to get out? Crispin saw your face!" when Nikki stopped kissing me she was sitting between my legs as we leant against the door. I could feel her hand slowly trailing up my leg and I did my best not to flinch. I noticed Shane had quite a smug look on his face

"I think I can answer that question gorgeous" Shane opened his palm and there it was a plume of green flame floating in the middle of his palm. He looked so please with himself I thought his head was going to explode

"Thank you so much said nikki" Shane nodded to her as he begun to play with his plume of green flame again muttering things about infinite energy possibilities. I almost yelped as Nikki's hand seemingly reached its target, I had to wonder about her timing. Not that I was exactly complaining.

"I thought you guys were like total goners then huh!" Everyone nodded in agreement with Kyle as we turned to grace at the exact same time

"So what do we do now?" we all said at the same time. Grace looked at her wristband and tapped it a couple of times. According to this we have training in about five minutes. I wouldn't suggest you try and join in, because you would need to know the choreography. Keep your cloaks on its not unusual for some of us to wear them around the common room. Mostly because were trying to avoid Mr Black. Ok Im going to go to training, meet back here afterwards. In about an hour we'll be about come and go as we please. Give it about five minutes before you come out though. And hey this is my room; the only other person in here is Melissa. And she'll be too busy in some random boys room to come back for now." We all nodded in agreement. Grace kept her cloak on and grabbed a katana from the side of the bed. She left before either Kyle or Shane could question her on it. They both seemed quite interested; however it was most probably bordering more on jealousy, Shane tore himself away from his green flame and began to look around the bedroom, it was all black and had a painting of a serpent crawling into itself on the top of the roof.

"This place is intense hey?" I said to the rest of us. I took a moment to really take in the grasp of this place. It was quite intense, Crispin black ran this place like a military institute, and he treated his students like troops, and ran everything around a strict schedule. Mr Jackson who was the head of our group never even bothered to step foot in out dorms. Not that I knew anyway. And here was Crispin black running around his dormitory like everyone in here were people that had outstayed there welcome. I imagine the only one who enjoy being here, was that kid he always favouritized that Ultima kid. I had no idea why he liked him so much. But he treated everybody else here except the privileged few (which he got to follow Ultima around constantly) as doormats. If I was going to find anything out I really wanted to find out why he liked this Ultima kid so much. Kyle gestured that maybe we should all go, so we all got up and put or cloaks on. Nikki let her hands trail off me and ran towards the door. Problem was she left me rather excited, I was rather glad we were wearing cloaks. I shook my head at her; she just smiled at me evilly. We snuck up to the main hall. There was a giant descent in the middle of the hall. It was at least ten step tiers down. Up on the top where we were, was littered with cobblestone columns it was large enough to hide us behind so we snuck behind one. Besides we were camouflaged quite well the only light source was coming from the dim light of the green flame chandelier and the numerous candles littering around. Below was quite unsettling to me, there was Crispin black with a whip, booming out directions such as "attack left" "attack right" whipping people every now and again for having bad posture or bad stances. After that, he paired everybody off and made them fake fight each other, Whipping the loser. One of the greater surprises came from grace. Who was besting her partner with little ease, we were all rather impressed. Finally after all the kids were thoroughly exhausted he dismissed them in a sneering tone and left for his office. I saw my chance and went for it. I didn't care what the other said he was taking Ultima with him and I just needed to know why he liked this kid so much. I snuck away from the others without giving them warning luckily neither of them could say much or else give away there cover. I ducked behind several columns as I made my way closer. I even had to grip to the roof with my severed hand with one close call. The advantage being that it was very dark, and I was wearing a black cloak. Crispin and Ultima slinked through his office door and I stuck a piece of my hand through the door at the last minute so the door wouldn't close. I looked into the door and saw there was a perfectly dark alcove I could hide it and there was also a rather large pot plant I could hide behind as well that was placed in front of the alcove, it was the perfect over. And besides he was far to busy swooning over Ultima to notice me, finally when I settled he had just started talking.

"Ah… my dear Ultima, tell me how are you progressing after today's event?" it was such a disgustingly sweet voice he put on I almost wanted to vomit

"oh…um fine sir" Ultima said in an obedient but never the less down heartened tone, this surprised me, but I rather imagined that he wasn't fond of all this special attention he was getting from Mr black anyway

"Fine, fine!? Care to define fine boy!" still trying to keep his best sweet voice he could

"Have you managed to permanently absorb any of the girls' powers yet?" Ultima stared at the ground yet again as Crispin black leant against the back of his chair and put his feet up on the table in a casual manner

"can you imagine how fortuitous I was when I discovered your true powers my child? Low and behold here I thought I had a measly another dreg dead end powered kid. But imagine my surprise when you went and absorbed someone else's power. Imagine my true surprise when I found out that I had myself an Empath in my midst, and even better an Empath unbeknownst to the rest of the faculty, now here stands before my trump card in tipping the favour towards the snake faction. With you I will win the school competition. Wipe the smile off that Jackson Holmes. And the fat headed phoenix madden. Maybe even do away with the professor's wonder child Keelan all that was left to do was fake your address so you wouldn't be placed in a specific power exploration class, so I could deal with you myself. Anyway I wish for you to continue to mingle with those I have assigned to you. You may do with them whatever you wish, your have my permission to use me as an excuse. We need you to permanently absorb a power, before the battle in two days. Not that it matters all that much, you should still win regardless. Now go boy I shall escort you out. Its free time now" this Ultima kid had the power to absorb powers? He could be strong. Possibly the strongest here, stronger than me even, so this was Crispin blacks big secret. I waited for them to leave and then sneaked my way out and back into grace's room. I heard a couple of bangs and a lot of movement as I entered the room. When I got in they all sighed another loud audible sigh. As soon as I closed the door Nikki yelled at me

"What the hell was that!?" I thought it was quite cute to see her angry

"That wasn't a very good idea nav! I already saved your ass before, I couldn't do it again" said Shane in his usual know it all expression. Luckily Kyle saw the urgency in my voice and questioned me about it

"Nav, did you find out anything?" I pulled my fingers to my face in a sign of stress and took a seat on one of the empty beds.

"Yeah, yeah I did. I snuck into the office where Crispin and Ultima were talking, and I found out what he was hiding, I know his secret weapon"

Everyone looked at each other and even grace seemed quite confused, I would have imagined that Crispin would only tell those he absolutely needed too. Everyone looked back at me waiting for the answer

"That Ultima kid, he's an Empath meaning he can absorb other peoples powers, what's worse is that the faculty didn't know he could, and he's trying to keep it a secret till the battle with the Raven faction, however he's having problems getting Ultima to obtain powers permanently" there was a loud variation of quite annoyed voices

"He, can absorb powers? That fully fucking cheating!" yelled Kyle. And Kyle was right; it was quite unfair to verse someone who could absorb powers, little did they know that apparently I was able to do the same as well, but I had yet to see this part of my powers in action

"I think we should tell somebody" said Shane obviously forgetting the fact that we were at this moment illegally sneaking into a foreign faction's dorm to steal secrets we shouldn't know however I think it was more due to the fact that Shane just didn't want his power stolen and used against him.

"that really does suck though eh!" said nikki. We were quite willing to bitch about this completely unfair advantage when grace gestured at us that we should go. It was free time, and if we didn't leave now we would be stuck with the group and in this dungeon.

It was a lot easier getting out than in. it was a simple as walking out hanging up the coat and leaving. Either that or it was because Crispin was out somewhere talking to someone, I was guessing to see the professor. We all started relaxing as we made it back into safer territory we all stopped and congratulated each other. Hi fiving everybody. Kyle even tried to sneak a second hi five in with grace. From behind me, I felt a heavy thump on my shoulder. So hard it pushed me forward landing on Shane, he immediately jumped to my defence

"Hey dude watch it!" it was a large musclebound dark skinned kid. When he tuned around I noticed that it was Ultima. Everyone around me began to look at him with a great amount of disgust. Ultima turned his sorrowful eyes up to

"Hey Im really sorry, I didn't see you there. Can you accept my apologies?" he offered me a hand, it seemed like a rather nice gesture. In fact in all evidence to date everything pointed to Ultima being forced to do everything he was doing, he never once insisted he did anything of the like that Crispin made him do. So I put my hand out to shake his. When out hands met, it felt as if there was an odd sucking sensation, I felt like I was being drained. I screamed in pain, the same as Ultima did. We both began to violently shake. And then I wrenched my hand away from his and fell to the floor, all my friends coming quickly to my aide. I felt as my every being had been sucked away from me, I felt hollow like I could float away with the slightest breeze. Everyone's voice was distant as if yelling from a great distance the only thing I could hear was Ultima's screams of pain, as his skin was turning black. I noticed that Mr Jackson had also just got here. Then from in front of me, Ultima's skin turned completely black all over. His hands became large and claw like and he grew a large green tongue; he reared up and thew his arms out. They were large and muscular, his voice vibrated from the roof. When finally Ultima stopped screaming I knew what was in front of me exactly, staring directly at me was another blood suit; Ultima had just absorbed some of my power. Finally I could hear the distant voices flowing in.

"good lord m'boy are you okay?" it was Mr Jackson he picked me up in his humungous arms and held me up, resting on one of his arms, like a guard rail. Then from one of the corners came running the professor and Crispin black. Crispin black ran as fast as he could to Ultima and cradled him into his arms and stroked the grotesque monstrosity in front of him. It took him a couple of seconds to realise what happened. But I knew he did when the cruellest smile he had yet wiped over his face. Mr Jackson voice boomed over the silence.

"What are you smiling about you damn fool, these boys are in quite a lot of pain!" then from within Crispin's arms, Ultima's blood suit receded and his muscle mass decreased to half the size it was in the blood suit. I could feel myself coming too and was highly more aware of my surroundings now. The professor looked me up and down and placed a hand on my shoulder

"Good lord are you alright Navar?" I nodded and pointed to Ultima and tried to make the words "Empath" Crispin stuck on a mask of deep hurt and then walked up to the professor

"I demand there be some sort of ramifications. My pupil is unconscious. I demand he be stripped of his privilege to compete in his extra curricular activities, especially the in school hero duelling competition" Mr Jackson almost rushed Crispin right there until he composed himself and stared at the professor

"Now, Crispin calm yourself. I can ascertain at this exact moment that your boy Adem will be fine, and as far as being stripped of his privilege we can hardly strip the lead scorer now can we? anyway according to the reports of everyone, all Navar did was shake his hand, and may I mention the insubordance of you trying to hide an Empath under my nose. I have no qualms about this whatsoever however the fact that you tried to keep it hidden does worry me, no one will be banned from anything, this in a isolated incident, you however I will think of a punishment for your lack of trust later. Everyone here will return to your dorms or move on. Navar I will speak to you myself if I may." Everyone waved me a little goodbye and said that they would be outside. I stood there I was still a little wobbly, and nothing in my body felt quite right. After everyone left the professor rushed to me and placed his hand on my chest a healing energy shined through my body, and that everything that was broken felt like it was fixed.

"How do you feel now Mr Keelan?" he looked thoroughly concerned

"um its ok professor, I feel fine now thanks, but wow what the heck happened back there" it occurred to me that I had to play dumb for the situation, otherwise let it be known that I snuck into the snake faction common room.

"That my dear boy was an Empath, naturally I knew of his existence all along, I was just waiting for Crispin to tell. Me, shame too that Adem has a heart of gold. It does however appear that he absorbed some of your power, that power now, will be forever encoded into his mutant gene. Now, but fear not, Empaths have their weaknesses as well, his power, his blood suit will never be the same as yours. Nor as powerful furthermore he only absorbed the power of your blood suit, not your unlimited potential. There is many way to beat an adversary such as this. Your power is stronger than his so you could fight fire with fire. You could send them into a power overload giving them a headache. Empaths can only permeantely absorb so many abilities, all the rest are kept on a temporary bases, it also appears that Adem needs to touch his victim [if you will in order to obtain there power. However he is no where near as strong as you my boy. You can absorb elements themselves, metal, and wood and even combine powers to make new ones. As far as extending your power evolution, I have devised several possible theories, I will get back to you when I find the one most suitable. My point is Navar, the battle you face tomorrow is not un-winnable, you are still stronger you just need to find a way to exploit his weakness, and with that a bid you good day, I have many a thing to do and not enough time to do it. I shall see you most preferably on the victors' side of the competition tomorrow yes?" I slinked off towards where everyone else was. My good mood was ruined, I now know where Shane was coming from before. Having your power stolen from you really sucks. I had lost some of my identity.

CHAPTER 18

The spider vs. serpent

Today was the day of the next hero duelling competition, today we had to verse the snake faction, normally I would only be a little nervous, had I not known the fact that I was about verse an Empath that just absorbed part of my blood suit power. The professor said I had nothing to worry about, that my powers far eclipsed that of an Empath, it still did nothing to quell my fears, I had no obvious edge against this "Ultima" kid, naturally I never really expected myself to win a battle in the first place. But after my last battle, my confidence was well on the way up. But now it was shot straight down. I decided to get up, it was about seven in the morning and no one else was really awake, so slinked off into bathroom, it was hard to push out the memories of this bathroom that happened the day before. I looked at myself in the mirror; yet again what stared back to me was a total stranger to me. My body's skin tone was even darker than before, and I had even more clearly cut muscular physique. This was really beginning to creep me out, why was my body fixing itself to much? Even more so, what was fixing it and more so, how was it doing this? I stopped staring at myself and decided I would go for a walk, Kovu meowed and curled himself around my legs, I gave him a small pat and got dressed, I decided I would put my uniform on now rather than earlier, it felt oddly familiar considering I had only worn it once before. There were a couple of murmurs from some of the people sleeping, and I whisked myself out of the room and down the steps from the common room to the hallways. It was still rather dark and there were shadows cast all over the large hallway. I was also a little cold. I had that strange creeping feeling as if someone was watching me, as if the shadows themselves were watching me. I pushed it past me again, and walked into the battle hall. It was adorned with the banners of raven faction and snake faction. It was surreal being inside a massive battle hall, and it was completely empty, I sat down in the middle and tried to soak it all in. the immense space. The silence, the uncanny silence where in just a couple of hours, there will be loud screams and applause so loud that they could shake the battle hall themselves. I let the calm flow through me, let it soothe my nerves, and wash over my worries when suddenly I heard footsteps, they were loud and far apart whoever's they belonged to was quite a big person, I opened my eyes expecting to see Mr Jackson. Before me was Ultima, he was wearing a black shirt and black jeans. He looked down at me with those weariful eyes of his

"Couldn't sleep either hey?" it was so hard to hate Ultima. He had never intentionally done anything wrong to me, all he was doing, all he ever was allowed to do was follow Crispin black's orders, reluctant or not. Ultima sat down near me. Two people sitting with there legs crossed in the middle of a giant empty stadium. I shook my head as to say no I couldn't sleep either, something worried me though, why was Ultima here, no one in the snake faction was allowed to leave unless Crispin knew about it

"Hey how come you're out here? I thought you people weren't allowed to go out of your dorms?" I wondered if that statement let on that I snuck into the snake faction or not, but Ultima didn't seem to notice. He pulled a chain from around his collar and resting on it was a gold key I imagined it was for that large black key

"Mr Black gave me a key, said I alone was allowed to come and go as I please" I never really thought about that, but then it did occur to me that Crispin would do anything to keep Ultima on his side. I smiled at Ultima, and then looked back down at the ground. He broke the silence first

"Hey, um…Im sorry about yesterday I really am, I didn't mean to do it. I thought we couldn't use our powers against each other anyway" he did have a good point, we were never allowed to use our powers against each other, nor could we. But somehow Ultima managed to get around that

"You know that's a really good point, how did you manage to do that?" Ultima shrugged his lumbering shoulders and looked up to me and smiled

"I don't think we have been properly introduced. Im Adem, nice to meet you blood." It was just exactly like the professor said before; Adem really was a very nice guy. I smiled back at him a gentle smile

"Don't call me blood, Im Navar nice to meet you. I'd shake your hand but we've been through that before" Adem laughed a little and nodded at me. He looked down at his hands and then looked back up at me

"you know, I have no idea to control this new power, it just goes completely over your head doesn't it? Mr black has made me train with again and again, but he just doesn't understand what its like, it's like a sensory overload" it just occurred to me that I had never thought about this situation from this angle before, I'd always thought about it from someone stealing some of my identity, rather than having someone I could talk to, and relate my amazing ability too.

"Yeah, when I first did it, I passed out afterwards. But hey, it gets easier" Adem sighed a sense of relief and went to talk again

"you know, I always thought you were the coolest power in the entire school, that last battle was amazing, I think your team would of lost if it wasn't for you" I blushed a little. And rolled my eyes, I was pretty sure this was like the fiftieth time someone had told me this

"Well. Err thank you" Adem went to grab me on the shoulder. Then looked at me and decided not to, we both shared a little bit of a laugh

"You know what, this power is great and all, but you can't use it everyday can you." I smiled and brought up my hand to his eye level. It shimmered into blood red goo and then back into its cruel claw like hand Adem looked down at the ground a little sullen

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that! How do I get that?" I laughed and returned my hand to it original form

"Get a teacher to cut off your hand in self defence?" Adem opened his eyes wide in an emphatic and surprised way

"What do you mean; you mean a teacher cut off your hand? Wow and I thought Mr Black was bad!" I shook my head and looked at my hand again

"It was that dickhead phoenix madden, he just doesn't like me for some reason" Adem looked at me for a while and then nodded

"Oh right, I always thought that guy was a bit up himself. Though I'd rather have him any day than Mr Black, hey where are you from anyway, you know before here?" I went to open my mouth to talk, but before I had a chance to say anything the doors to the hall flew open angrily. It was Crispin black he looked flustered and maybe even a little worried, he ran up to us in little amount of time. I saw Adem even smile at me a little bit

"There you are my dear Ultima I was so (he paused to a minute to find the right word)…worried, I was going to get you up early for an extra training session. Never mind Im just glad you're ok, come along now boy, we have little time. And you, you defiant little miscreant, shouldn't you be back in your dormitories or something? Honestly those other idiots run there factions as if they were hotels!" Crispin black stormed out the hall dragging Adem behind me, he waved at me just before he left the hall, and I waved back. I decided I would go back to the main hall for breakfast. I was surprised to find that Nikki and grace had joined the table of my friends, much to my pleasure and Shane and Kyle's as well. We had a great breakfast and I told them about my encounter with Adem, and we laughed and ate our breakfast it was an eerie calm before the storm.

The crowd's roars were amazingly loud. I wasn't sure if it was because I was here before, soaking in silence, or if I had just forgotten how amazing there screams were. Mr Jackson waltzed in he seemed more jovial than usual.

"Good morning boys, good morning, how are we, how are we indeed" we all looked at each other and shrugged. Shane looked more smug than usual, and Kyle kept spinning his stick around his hand changing its size, and some other sprouts from it as well

"Ok, ok, so I trust you have all worked on the things I told you to last time. Shane you seem to have a good grasp. On your abilities, and how to sustain them longer, (Shane nodded) and Kyle my boy you have ingeniously worked a way to have a more offensive power, whilst working a weapon into it as well, id like to see what your iq is one day boy, I really would (Kyle smiled rather largely) Navar you just keep doing what your doing. ( I rolled my eyes) I really cannot give you any form of a plan this time gentlemen, Crispin has held whom he's bringing into the competition from the rest of the faculty. I can tell you that this time it will be three on three, at least that's more even. And more so I can almost guarantee that that Ultima kid will be in though. And honestly the only person I can think to handle him is Navar. You got that Shane, Navar handles Ultima! You disobey my plan again and I'le switch you in for young master Leigh no matter what the rules say!" I had one question

"Sir, I've heard something's about points, what is the deal with that?" both Shane and Kyle nodded as well

"Oh, well you see, the competition is against factions, as you well know. The first battle against the lion faction was a battle to see who would verse the snake faction, and so on. However the end battle, the final is a battle royale as in all on all, all house faction leaders and the professor, grade each different fighter on his skills in battle, and how he used his power, and improvises etc. and then the top five will be in the final battle. However the team that wins gets an extra fifty points to your retrospective tallies. And the winner is the person in the final battle is he who ends up with the highest point tally. And believe me, the prize for winning. Well you want to win trust me on that" this seemed to strengthen Shane's resolve and smugness even more. The loudness got even more audible and within minutes we were shuffled of to begin the battle. The crowd went wild from all directions; it was the same setup as before. In the middle was Phoenix madden, he was wearing a black cloak and had a lion faction shirt on underneath it. Shane, Kyle and I stood on the black line we were supposed to. And phoenix began to call for silence

"Welcome all to this semi final competition today we will be witnessing the highly anticipated battle between the…prestigious raven faction, and the cunning snake faction on the black line we have the last battle's winners, by form of technical knock out, or surrender. From left to right we have…blood. (said in the most resentful voice he could muster), next to him the kitsune, and next to him we have the blue flame!" the crowd roared and Shane soaked in the applause and even wrote his name in blue flame above himself. Kyle rolled his eyes at me, and I laughed a little. Shane didn't seem to be conserving his power like he should be. Then from before us on the other side of the hall walked the snake faction. They wore green t-shirts that had a Snake that started from their torso and wrap around their back. And green gloves that went up to just past their wrists. I noticed Adem and next to him were two girls. One was blonde and pretty, and looked quite scared from all the attention she was getting from the crowd, on the other side was a small Asian girl, she had her eye keenly set on Shane, and I imagined she was one of those Asian girls that followed him around sometimes. He was trying to shake them off as late though. I think deep within him he didn't like all that undeserved attention. Phoenix called to crowd for silence again

"Ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stadium. The snake faction, from left to right we have, blonde and pretty we have, vertigo. Next to her, we have the powerful and mighty Ultima. And to her with have the multi talented multiplicia on my mark you will all begin." The crowd went wild and then with a quick gesture of phoenix's hand they were silenced, he dropped his hand to the floor, and the battle begun. I looked over to Shane, he burst into flame in such a wide arc that it almost hit Kyle. It was almost if he was doing his best to waste as much power as he possibly could. He was burning so hot it was almost getting to Kyle who was several meters away from him. Kyle and I looked at each other and Kyle pointed to where Shane's heart was. There almost un-noticeable was a plume of green flame. I guessed he must have figured out how to use it correctly, if Shane had found a self sustainable power source he was really a power to reckon with. He chose multiplicia as his opponent and flew towards her as heat lines all shimmered even meters away from him. He rushed at her, and then multiplicia split into two, and drew her sword that they all had in training, well I suppose that answered the question on what her power was. Kyle squeezed his stick and extended into a large kendo staff with a few thorns on the end of the stick. He mouthed good luck to me and sped off into the direction of vertigo, I saw his stick land on a force field around her, guessed that answered that question. That left just me and Adem. We walked up to the centre of the hall rather anticlimactically Adem smiled at me and shrugged his shoulders before he clenched his face in concentration, as he yelled in pain, his skin started turning black and his muscle mass began to double again I didn't need any more indication, funny though, his transformation seemed as if to hurt him, where mine felt like it was natural. I took this as my chance. I fashioned my hand into a claw and cut into my chest, it felt so unnatural cutting yourself intentionally, but soon, the blood suit was flowing over me, I felt it connect to my pores and flow into my senses. The wonderful sense of being able to see a million directions at once flowed through me, and before long I was now covered in my blood suit, funnily enough seconds before Adem's transformation was finished. I took this as my chance to evade and slinged myself up to the roof, I was adhered to the top of the roof looking upside down at Adem still finishing his transformation. Shane looked as if he was having the time of his life. A total of ten multiplicia's was attacking Shane at the same time. Back at Kyle he was still flipping and twirling better than any acrobat I had ever seen, vertigo was throwing balls of force field energy at Kyle, and parrying his attacks quite masterfully with her katana. Something in the back of my mind pulled my attention back to my own situation. The same itching feeling of worry I had when I always thought the shadows were watching me. I had little time to act before a massive black tentacle was aiming straight at me it would have been at least 30cm's thick at its apex, and it was whipping straight for me. I manage to dodge, but only just as I still felt the air around me be absorbed into the slipstream of the massive tentacle that was aimed at me. I was falling, my senses let me control myself perfectly I spun into a landing. I landed like a spider low and lurched over ready to attack. Adem's black face was staring at me, he looked still a little shocked that he missed me, His face was a terrifying visage he was a tooth filled slightly elongated jaw, a green tongue lashed around his teeth and he had two large tentacles whipping around from his back. I was totally in over my head, I had no idea how to beat this muscle bound hulk that I was against. I knew Adem was a great guy, but this thing that I was looking at was unpredictable and evil looking; I thought to myself that I was probably the same. Adem thrust a fist towards me and a thick black tentacle preceded it quite quickly, but I had more time than I needed to react. I jumped and span around, when I was upside down I was staring at the tentacle as it whipped forward I fashioned my hand into a axe and sliced down into it, it severed the thick tentacle with little effort It felt as if I was cutting skin itself. I landed next to the tentacle as it whipped back to Adem's hand. He yelled in anger and rubbed his wrist a little, the severed tentacle soon disappeared into nothingness. Adem lurched forward onto his hands and thrust himself with his massive arms towards me. I managed to jump out of the way quite easily, but he had created quite a large shockwave upon his landing, I flipped back and landed in my spider like stance ready for evasive action. At this point I was starting to gather what the professor was saying; I clearly had a speed advantage over the behemoth in front of me. It gave me a defence, but it didn't give me an advantage over attacking, also it seemed as if he couldn't control his suit very well, acting more on savage instinct than anything, rather than I who by now had most of the control over my suit. I had little time to think the situation further, a large fist landed right near me, I had just enough time to dodge, all that was left was a broken floor, then another fist luckily that sense, that itching thing in the back of my brain was still letting me know a few seconds before the attack, so I had a little amount of warning and a chance to evade. We were working our way through the centre of the hall. Leaving a myriad of broken floor pieces the size of Adem's giant fists behind in our wake. I had to think of somehow to change the tide of the battle, it was only a matter of time till I was going to lose my edge and jump or flip the wrong way and I would be slugged by one of his giant fists. That time was now, the fist was easy enough to dodge with a back flip, however the extended tentacle that preceded it was a little harder. It whipped around me constricting me like a giant snake, crushing me, and making it hard to breathe. I yelled out in pain, and I heard a cruel deep laugh come from Adem. So much not like him, he started to lift me up in the air laughing, I needed to think of a way to get out of this vice hold, I needed to hang on, just that little bit longer. I think this was about time for me to think beyond the suits powers, at least the ones I knew I had. I thought pointy, spiky, stabby and then I felt from my body sprout giant vicious spikes That stabbed through Adem's thick constricting tentacle. The pieces that were left dropped to the floor and disappeared into nothingness, the severed tentacle retracted back into Adem's suit and he screamed in anger. At least I figured out my advantage, he couldn't go beyond throwing tentacles at me and using brute force, I had the advantage of being able to weaponize my whole body, I flipped back but it was still too slow to dodge the other hand that swung at me. The huge hand wrapped around my torso and squeezed me a little before crushing me a little, before thrusting me towards the wall next to the entrance, I felt like I was being thrown so fast that my blood suit was going to blow away, I even flew over Shane who was still rather enjoying himself, his flame suit was looking more whiter than usual, I could see he was getting rather annoyed with not being able to find the original multiplicia and having to fight all these endless clones. He was using a flame blade from his hand to cut and melt any sword that touched it into a puddle on the floor, I turned my head to Kyle for a second, he was still having a furious battle with vertigo it was weapon on weapon battle, but Kyle's speed was slowly winning over her. And before I had any more time to react I tried to flip over to land properly on the wall but missed and I landed with my back slammed against the wall. It felt like I was mashed into the wall myself. I slumped to the ground and tried to asses my damage; there was none, mostly my pride than anything. I think the crowd thought I was down because there was a loud silence and an even louder applause when I got up. I looked at Adem in the centre of the hall, he laughed and gestured his hands to "come and get it" id thought to myself with an odd smile that I was ready to do just that. Four bladed tentacles sprouted from my back. And I turned one of my hands into an axe, the other into a sharp pointed stabbing instrument. I lunged my way forward to him with my enormously powerful legs; I was ready for him this time, now that I knew how to beat him. A tentacle flew at me, one of my bladed tentacles struck it pre-emptively as if it was a snake striking at a mouse. Then another tentacle on the right of me, another one of my tentacles downed that one instantaneously as well. Adem roared in rage and sent in four tentacles at one, exactly what I wanted I jumped up over them as my tentacles grabbed them and thrust Adem forward, throwing him off balance and making him land flat on his face. I flipped a little in the middle of my fall to place myself in the right place, when I was there I thrust myself downwards into his huge back, and used the spear type instruments that I turned my hand into as a knife, I dragged them down his back leaving two massive gashes in Adem's back. It was a rather brutal way to finish an opponent; if this was real life he would have been dead in an instant. But it wasn't real life. Adem screamed in pain as he got himself up slowly, his back wound was healing very slowly, but healing nevertheless unlike mine which always healed instantaneously, even more of what the professor said starting coming true, he had my power sure. But it was limited and weaker. The behemoth in front of me lumbered over in exhaustion, breathing heavily, I struck a fighting pose keeping my hands still weaponized. I wasn't about to hit someone when they were down, I doubt Adem would. And I wasn't about to either. Soon after the beast roared in rage and struck a fighting pose again. I grew my four bladed tentacles from my back in retaliation; they struck at the air like angry snakes, as Adem and I just stood there. Lumbering at each other, I didn't know how much time of past. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours. We were just standing there looking at each other. When finally Adem attacked first, he swung his fist into a large right hook, my itching feeling allowed me to dodge under it and I thrust my hand up into his wrist spearing it right through, I concentrated a little more and my one spear split into two severing his hand clean off. And leaving me with a crude claw like attachment on my hand, Adem recoiled in shock and pain, yelling in rage as his suit was receding back into his body. He fell over next to his severed hand and wrist, and just before the orange healing sphere enveloped him the last Black Hand managed to thrust his katana square at me. It landed exactly where my heart was. I leant down on all fours. I couldn't breathe very well. I thought I was supposed to be able to heal things like this, I was supposed to be invincible, with uncanny regenerative capabilities. Then why did this hurt, my wound wasn't healing. Then an arm from under me pulled the sword from out of me, instantly making me feel better, it was Kyle he smiled and waved at me. In his other hand he held the unconscious vertigo; he threw her unconscious body on top of Adem's just as her orange healing orb appeared. Kyle helped me up, fingering my odd blood suit a couple of times. Until we looked over to Shane, who was still in the same situation he was before, and I could tell he was getting rather annoyed with it, Kyle and I wondered if we should help him but we knew it wouldn't be a very good idea. Then suddenly it looked like Shane finally snapped

"THAT'S FUCKING IT!" he roared out a large scream and a blast arc about five meters round appeared from under his feet and all of the multiplicia's, then the flame arced up in points and enveloped them all in flame, Shane's flames blew even more out of control, exploding in terrifying amount of blue flame, then from the top of the roof it began raining multiplicia's three of them dropped near us. The one that landed near Adem and vertigo, quite quickly grew an orange healing sphere around her, and the five others that were spread around the hall disappeared into nothingness. Shane roared in joy and flamed the sky so letters floating above all of us read "feel the burn!" he flew over to us and landed near the pile of unconscious adversaries and smiled at us. I noticed his green plume of flame around his heart, shooting what looked like veins of fire all over him. He smiled at us and gave us thumbs up. I looked at Kyle who looked rather exhausted, he looked over to me

"You know for a while there I thought I was fighting you" I didn't know what he meant by this, but I guessed by the name of the person he was against "vertigo" that she probably had some sort of power to create delusions. Shane receded his flame suit and walked between the three of us. Grabbing our hands and raising them up the air. Everything else was dead but the roar of the crowd.

After we were healed we were sent back to out to do the conclusive speech and greet the losers again. I rubbed my heart a couple of times, I know it healed perfectly, but I still felt violated. The applause was intense, there was even some sort of song sung by the raven faction about me I think It went "blood, blood, turns the others to mud, to mud, that's blood, blood, blood!" somehow I imagined that had something to do with Nikki's influence somehow it was a rather catchy tune though, I rather liked it. Phoenix madded trudged into the middle of the field looking more sullen than usual, and began to make his voice boom over the crowd again, especially to those singing the blood anthem

"What a show hey ladies and gentlemen, Just when you think someone has a match over someone they manage to come straight back (he stole a look at me before continuing) but however by winners of technical knockout, all three of them. The winners… YET AGAIN are the raven group!" The crowd roared into life again, many of them standing up to clap. The song blurred from the raven faction. But the bigger surprise was the amount of people yelling out for the blue flame. I guessed that they really liked Shane showmanship, heck I know I would of they way he thought the battle was very flashy. However Kyle was not without his fans, many of the screams coming from the girls of the snake faction. Kyle blushed. And Shane was trying to hide himself. Funny how he was so showy with his powers, but then shied away from the attention they got him. It was like Shane was a different person when he was enveloped in that flame suit. Phoenix called for silence again, and eventually the crowd began to quieten again.

"Yes, yes how generous applause, all of you. Let us not forget the valiant attempts and well fought battle of the snake faction please all of you a round of applause" the crowd roared in obedience and even phoenix joined in clapping, I laughed at how he didn't clap for us. He then called for silence again

"ok, please duellists, shake hands and greet each other over the glorious battle we just witnessed you should all be very proud" there was a less quiet amount of applause and then we all moved to the middle to greet each other. We moved from left to right. I greeted the blonde beauty vertigo first. Her eyes were entrancing as if they were hypnotising me just by looking at them, she spoke in a heavy French accent

"zat boy with ze tail is very afraid of you no, it was the best delusion I could come up with to beat em', but smart he is no? and you, you are quite impressive one, you beat Mr black's star pupil e' will not ve very impressed I can tell you zat" this was the first time that I actually thought about the repercussions of my winning, I wish I could of been there when I beat Adem, just to see Crispin's face

"You know I never thought about that, I gotta admit thought, seeing him annoyed would probably please me anyway, besides you can create illusions? You make that much stronger and you will be unstoppable!" she blushed at me, and before we could discuss it I was moved onto the next one, it was Adem, he looked at me and smiled, he was even daring enough to grab me on the shoulder in encouragement, I could still see he was a little sad though

"That was absolutely brilliant Navar! I mean, wow I couldn't control the suit as much I would of liked, and it was like everything I was doing was being pushed through a sponge, but you totally had a cool head through the whole battle, and worked out how to beat me, through all those punches and hits you managed to think! Seriously unbelievable! You deserved to win man, you really did, now all I have do is face Mr black, oh man that's not going to be any fun" Adem just confirmed some of my thoughts before that he didn't have total control over the suit himself. Perhaps in time he will come to able to beat me.

"In time Adem, I think we will become even closer rivals, you just need to learn to control your powers a little more. And about Mr Black man, I feel for you I really do" Adem looked on the floor and returned back to his saddened face again, and before I could comfort him I was moved on to the next person. It was the small Asian girl. She looked at me with an utter amount of delight and shook my hand ferociously

'I am glad to meet you very yes" her words were a bit backwards and it was drowning in a thick Japanese accent and spoken very fast. I got the general grasp at what she was saying and nodded

"You really manage to peeve of Shane hey?" she looked over at Shane with admiring eyes and then turned back to me

"there is a legend of a sun god in Japan, I believe him to be that sun god's incarnate, but yes you are right, his power is amazingly unfathomable is it not" I looked at Shane, sun god? I found that quite funny, I think Shane would hate that amount of attention. But I smiled at her anyway. And moved on back into the line, as we were instructed to do the professor was now standing next to phoenix madden looking rather pleased and jolly, phoenix gestured the crowd for silence again

"Ladies and gentlemen the professor would now like to talk to you about the final battle that will be coming up in a week so if we can all have your undivided attention. The professor pushed himself in front of Phoenix madden and grabbed the microphone

"Ladies and gentlemen, the final battle will begin in a week. The judges have all tallied there scores of everybody's individual battles, points are based on resourcefulness, improvising, flair and your ability to cope with the task's given to them. The judges are your retrospective house leaders, and as to have an unbiased opinion, myself. The four of us have tallied the points as follows." All around the hall there were large giant televisions at least about two meters square. And it was easily visible from any point in the room. They flashed up a list of all the people that had competed in the competition. Next to their code name was a number. Five of them were coloured blue in opposition to the other white. And mine especially was coloured green. The points were as followed; Blood 200 the blue flame 120 the kitsune 119 Ultima 100 and obelisk 92. Everyone looked at me, I didn't blame them, I was about seventy five points above everybody else. Adem and Andy joined me, Kyle and Shane in the line. Andy stood next to me, he was absolutely beaming, he clapped me on the back and smiled to me and waving to the crowd with his other hand, taking extra care to wave at the lion faction's stand, soon after the professor called for silence

"As well as the final battle royale there are two other surprises in store, firstly before the battle itself there will be an exhibition match between your faction leaders, which I can assure you more than promises to be interesting. Secondly concerns the clear winner of the points based championship, blood. As the winner of this leg of the championship he is indeed allowed to ask upon the facility one favour, within reason of course. Mr Keelan may I borrow you for a second" I had to ask a favour, funny that I seemed it was a more of hindrance than a privilege, I tried to think as I walked up to the professor. Through the applause I tried to think about what I wanted, what I wanted that the facility could give me. I couldn't think of anything I wanted. I had everything I needed here, I loved being here. I had to think about someone else, someone else that could need something. Finally it dawned on me, and not a moment too soon. The professor walked up to me and came down to my level as he handed phoenix the microphone, he looked at me and rolled his eyes, I took my eyes off him and back onto the professor

"Have you thought about what we could do for you my boy"? I nodded my head and looked back to the line

"Do you think, you could change someone into a different faction? Or even two" the professor thought about it for a while and then looked back at me, as he pushed his spectacles up

"It all depends m'boy, it would be indeed hard to do considering as I mentioned before people are placed in their groups for a reason Navar, tell me however what is it that you wish from us?" I knew what I wanted to have done I just hoped against hope it could

"Do you think Adem and grace would be allowed to change faction" the professor looked over at Adem and then searched for grace after he found her somewhere in the crowd. He turned his attention to me. Before he even answered I knew It was going to be a no, I could read it on his face. The professor pushed his spectacles back to his eyes a little closer and began to speak to me again

"I agree with you on one case, young Navar in fact I was thinking of moving young Adem myself, his powers as an Empath would much rather suit the nurturing of the raven faction, however with ms grace I will have to disagree, her powers will only really respond to the nurturing of the snake faction, however I hear from Crispin himself, that grace has the highest standard in self defence and martial arts class, she has nearly bested everyone else in her class, is that what you wish to so selflessly pass on your favour to another student? That is very gracious and valiant of you Navar. Always thinking of others aren't you? Very well I shall announce it to the crowd; I imagine Crispin is going be most displeased" I guess the professor was right, I did generally think of other peoples before myself. I think this had more to do with the fact that most of my life all I wanted to think about was other people rather than thinking about my completely morbid situation I was in. the professor walked away from me and back next to phoenix to grab his microphone, he then shushed the crowd into silence

"Mr Keelan has chosen to pass his favour onto another in a gracious and selfless display of his own amazing nature. What he has chosen as his favour is something I actually agree with myself, and I was thinking about doing myself. Ladies and gentlemen from now on, the one know as Ultima will now be transferred to the raven faction from the snake faction. I looked back to Adem his eyes lit up with the first amount of true happiness I had ever seen him. He jumped up and down, and came over to hug me; the raven faction clapped loudly, while there was a loud amount of boo's coming from the snake faction. I could see a furious Crispin black storming up to the professor as he walked over to Adem and told him that his things will be delivered to the raven factions dormitories later in the day and that he could go back to the raven faction immediately if he wished, and that we should both go now and leave Crispin to him. Adem bounded along and was greeted by Kyle and Shane warmly, no one was brave enough to shake his hand though, and I didn't blame them. We walked into the change rooms and soon after Mr Jackson boomed through the doors to greet us all

"Amazing, amazing simply amazing! You all did brilliantly! Firstly may I welcome you Mr (he looked at his wristwatch) Mercan to the prestigious raven house, Im quite sure you will enjoy it here much more than that horrible snake faction, and that horrible Crispin black. I see you are from Victoria, Australia as well. That mean you will also be a part of your fellow's power exploration class as well as be in the oceanic regions part of the dormitory curious that such information was previously hidden from us of you would have been placed in the power exploration class at the origin of it, and again welcome, welcome" Adem really did truly look happy his eyes had stopped looking sullen and hopeless, and it was like he was looking through the world in different eyes, he turned his face to me

"Thank you so much nav, I can't believe you did that! You gave up your chance to basically have whatever you wanted, and you chose to move me into a different house! I am in your debt Navar! And all of you, thank you so much for your warm welcome's Im very glad to be a part of the raven group, I will wear your insignias and colours with insurmountable amounts of high pride" I blushed a little and shrugged as Kyle and Shane gave Adem a thumbs up, still afraid to touch him, it was quite interesting however that he was from Australia as well. Mr Jackson began to continue

"Firstly I would like to congratulate…Shane! You were absolutely amazing out there; you really did find a way to make your flame sustain longer, amazingly longer than expected, and how you finally ended your battle must of taken a great deal of energy, Im very proud of you Shane you did well" Shane cracked his neck and smiled and Kyle patted him on the shoulder. From the corner of my eye I could see the plume of green flame sticking in his flamed hair as if was an oddly dyed piece of hair. Mr Jackson continued and turned his gaze to Kyle

"Kyle, you did brilliantly as well. To fight delusions that attack your mind itself is amazing test of your strength of mind, my god boy I reckon you have a high IQ, and even more your weapon idea worked a treat didn't it. You matched blows with that vertigo perfectly. I imagine it would be quite interesting to learn what your delusion was" Kyle looked absolutely chuffed as well, and there was the usual amount of applause and congratulations. I smiled a bit, knowing that Kyle's delusion was him fighting me. I didn't intend to tell anyone thought, I imagine that would be quite embarrassing to him. Mr Jackson turned his attention to me and put his hand to my shoulder

"Navar, my dear Navar you surprised me the most, I really thought you had it in for you that one, but yet again you kept your head and found our boy Adem here's weakness and exploited it, you did brilliantly again, and its no doubt you scored highly, to win over both phoenix, and Crispin, you know they both don't like you very much, but yet seventy five points above everybody else, just goes to show how you well you actually did, you deserved your win thoroughly and more completely" there was some more claps and Adem put his hand on my shoulder in a congratulatory manner, I blushed a little, I still didn't think I did much to deserve all the attention. Mr Jackson turned his attention back to Adem and smiled

"I may as well debrief our new team member as well, you Adem did quite well considering your own grasp on your abilities, I will go over this more in power exploration class, but you were trying to match Navar's speed, and agility and you weren't playing to your own strength, I would gather that with more experience you may learn to grasp your abilities much better" Adem smiled and thanked Mr Jackson, he then told us all to go and get changed (Adem had to stay in his uniform) and go accept our fan accolades. We all walked out to the amazing amounts of people massed near the exit all wanting to talk to us. Eventually we managed to get free of them all. And I introduced Adem to the others. Grace also found out from someone that overheard the professor that I tried to get her moved as well. She thanked me and kissed me on the cheek. We spent the rest of the in the outside quad. Adem and grace included.

CHAPTER 19

Truths

Everything went pretty good, after the competition, Adem moved into our dorm onto the spare bed that was originally designated to the now missing In action Sinder king, it was between Shane and Kyle. He generally seemed happier, mind you it had only been a week since Adem had been moved into our dorm, everyone got on fairly well with him, and even grace was hanging around us more than her other friends, she said since Adem had been moved to the raven faction that Crispin after being totally infuriated with my insolence had started treating everybody a little better, and was even starting to favour grace a little bit because of her impressive fighting skills. Today was Friday and our wristwatch had just informed us that we had a power exploration class today. Adem was really excited about it. It was odd to see Adem excited, he was often so quiet, and lost in his thoughts, I heard Nikki and Linda make a few jokes that if it was up to Adem and I we would be lost in our thoughts forever. I gave them an evil glance, Adem didn't seem to notice. He was getting better though, and slowly adapting to new life. And so we all set off for the power exploration class.

The hall was fitted with odd amounts of boxes with pipes coming out of them. And Mr Jackson was standing in the middle with a wide grin. He was wearing his same brown pinstripe suit he usually wore. And his glasses were pushed up towards his nose even further up, on top of them were some odd lenses I've never seen before, as per usual there were a million things in this world I didn't understand, I wasn't going to try and figure this one out. Josh and Kane came up to Adem and me and congratulated us our winnings, me more so on my point's victory, they even shook hands with Adem and nothing happened. Shane and Kyle noticed this and both looked at each other and shrugged. We got into our usual half circle, I naturally stood next to nikki, and she pushed herself into me again. Adem was staring into the ground again, Shane and Kyle were discussing what they thought today's lesson was going to be about, Linda and Leigh were whispering something in each other's ears that I couldn't perceive and Kane and josh were talking to the other girls that were in the class. Mr Jackson stepped in front of us and clapped his hands together for silence.

"And welcome students to another lesson of power exploration, before I even begin may we all welcome a new student to the raven faction, and furthermore to our class, Adem Mercan. But of course you should all remember him from his excellent battle against our Navar here, in the most recent hero duel " Everyone clapped a little and Adem lifted his head up and smiled at everyone and even blushed a little. Mr Jackson called for silence and clapped his hands together again  
"yes, yes and I trust you are enjoying yourself Mr Mercan? Anyway, today's lesson is all about your reliance on your human senses and not trusting your superhuman senses, yes you all have them. Your mutant gene even if were latent or inactive would still give you a higher sense of smell, a greater sense of hearing, even a greater eye sight. It's just what your mutant gene gives you on the most basic of levels. Today I want you to learn to use those abilities more, and to use your powers in such a context. And so with the professors' help I have devised an obstacle course, everybody please step behind this white line." Mr Jackson tapped his wristwatch twice and made sure we were all behind the white line. A large sheet of glass rose from the floor and up to the roof and shut airtight. The same appeared to happen near the other side of the hall. There was about a six metre gap between the two sheets of glass. Then my questions about those odd machines were finally answered. As the airtight chambers filled with smoke until it was almost impossible to see what was in there. Mr Jackson laughed a bit, and took in some time to soak in all of our awe.

"before you I have devised an obstacle course, and with the help of the professor this obstacle course will be different for every single one of you, I want you to try and use your powers and your senses to get yourselves through it, along the paths and in various places, suited to your individual, will be several different coloured batons, the red one's are worth three points, green two, and white one's are worth one. Inside you will be protected by a healing sphere if the problem arises. Firstly I would invite Shane into the obstacle course. Oh and you can wear this mask if you want." Shane looked around and took a deep breath and opened the door into the smoke. There was some sort of depressurisation part and then he stepped into the obstacle course. His tactic was fairly obvious; he didn't even try to use tactics. He didn't really do anything; anything but explode an amazing amount of flame from his body, still using his advantage of having that ever burning green flame, to fuel his energy burning problems. I had no idea how the flame split the smoke into the different sides of the tank but it gave us a good view of what was inside, before us was a gauntlet it was mostly non lethal battering rams and barricades. Shane just floated ahead slowly with a massive arc of flame, just melting away the barricades and battering rams near him, he managed to obtain all the batons, except for the ones he accidentally melted. Mr Jackson look rather infuriated at Shane

"That's not the bloody point of the exercise you insufferable child!" he looked at us and composed himself perfectly, I think he wasn't angry at Shane, more angry that his obstacle course wasn't working the way he wanted it too. He looked at us and began to speak

"That, is exactly how I don't want you to do it, the point of the activity is to try and feel without seeing. Not using your bloody powers so you can see. Ok children on my mark I will send you in from the order you're standing in now" the smoke was beginning to slink back to covering our view. I could hear Mr Jackson muttering something about Shane saying he ruined everything. The last view of Shane we saw was a curious one. He clutched his heart right at the end of the obstacle and a healing sphere appeared over him. Kyle Shane and I looked at each other and shrugged. Next was banshee, the girl who could make sonic booms. We couldn't see anything but we heard a couple of loud booms that shook the glass a little bit. I assumed she was using her power to see things in her immediate vicinity. She came out with three batons. Looking rather pleased with herself. The next girl with the whip hair I think Paris was her name, went in after smiling at Kane curiously, I laughed maybe red-hairs stuck together, I was also rather glad no one else heard that. The girl with the whip hair came out with a red baton and a white one, and looked rather tired; she was coughing a lot as well. Considering I was at the end of the line next to Nikki I had the privilege of watching everyone else go in before me. Next up was Kane he grabbed his sword from its holder and walked through cautiously. There wasn't much noise coming through Kane's end, but he came out with three red, and a white baton, so far that was the highest out of all of them. Next was josh;

Josh concentrated hard and had explosive aura around him about half a meter around his torso. It was quite curious, it was like josh half exploded and then froze it. He walked into the room and the smoke dissipated in about a metre away from him but he soon disappeared into the smoke. He came out on the other side with three red batons and two white ones. It put josh in the top of the baton count, one above Kane. Next was Adem, he looked up a little more and walked into the room. He didn't have any obvious powers activated. But on the other side, he walked out with that looked like every single baton in the room. We all looked at each other and shrugged, how he managed to do that was quite curious, he got a very suspicious look from the people sitting standby holding all there batons as they sat in the bleachers over looking the smoke tank themselves. Next was Kyle. He grabbed his stick and extended it to about double the length of himself. The last thing was saw of Kyle was him extending his stick, to almost the size of the tank itself. He came out with four red batons, and three white ones. Next to Adem, Kyle was now second. Up next was Nikki, she smiled at me and walked towards the smoke tank, she extended her beautiful wings. And they dragged along the depressurisation tank and left some deep scratches in them, this was the first they knew of Nikki's wings now becoming bladed. I saw a few visions of her flying around when she beated the smoke enough to clear a view of her for a couple of seconds. She came out with three green and one white one. She didn't seem all to pleased at herself though, she took her seat next to Kyle. Next Linda stepped in and I could see her moving things around the tank looking for the batons. She came out with a higher count than Kyle, but still less than Adem. Leigh was next, and all I saw was he changed his eyes to some yellowed eyes, he emerged with a little more batons than Linda, but still less than Adem.

Up next was me. I took a deep breath and stepped into the tank after depressurising I stepped into the smoke. It washed over me, I couldn't see anything I tried to close my eyes and think as a I walked around a little bit, I walked into a wall. And almost tripped over, I gave up with this approach and opted for something else. I thrust my severed hand in the air so it split into hundreds of different tentacles, and panned around blindly feeling my way around for batons. I found several and brought them down to my hand. It kept my tentacles on a short leash and walked forward. Something slammed into the side of me and I had little time to react. I fell over. I got back up and stumbled forward a little more, same reaction. I got tired of this soon. I sent up new tentacles towards the roof. When they landed I pulled myself up it a bit and swung towards the exit, grabbing a few batons on the way out, until I landed next to the door and found my way out. I looked at how many batons I had, I had about six white batons, three green batons, and about four red batons, it put me ahead of everyone else, everyone but Adem. I looked over to the people sitting in the bleaches. Nikki blew me a kiss, Shane had his head facing the ground and wasn't even paying attention to anything, Kyle gave me the thumbs up, Kane and josh just waved at me, the other two girls giggled when I looked at them. And Linda and Leigh were talking to themselves so they didn't see me looking at them. Soon after we settled Mr Jackson got us to line up and began to talk again.

"Good, good. Most of you did very well" he looked at Shane, Shane hadn't even noticed, he was looking more depressed than I had ever seen him, his head was hanging low and he wasn't paying attention to anything.

"However the clear winner is Adem here, if I have counted correctly he managed to obtain every single baton that was placed in field, tell me Adem I received no notice that you activated your power, how did you do this?" Everyone looked at each other again and then turned to face Adem as he spoke

"I just did what you told me to sir, I did as I was instructed and felt my surroundings, I used my extra sensory perception, and it led me to every one of these batons, just as you told me to sir" Kyle rolled his eyes a little and the rest of us were just a little confused, Mr Jackson seemed quite pleased with his student

"you see, Adem here was the only person that actually listened to me, I told you that there was no need for your powers, naturally it would help you but the point of the exercise was to feel with your extra sensory powers, and that is why young Adem gets awarded today's class participation award. And that is all for today, if you can wait for the smoke tank to recede into the floor, you are all dismissed, Navar the professor wished to see you after this lesson; he said he would meet you here. Kane and josh turned there attention to the girls as they began to walk out of the room, I joined the rest of the group as we crowded around Shane. Who was still looking utterly depressed, It was Kyle who spoke first

"Shane dude, what's up?" Shane didn't say anything but pointed to his hair that I had just noticed had returned to its normal parted black hair. It was me who spoke next coz everyone still had no idea what was wrong with Shane

"What, Shane I don't get it?" Shane dragged his head upwards to look at us

"It burnt out! That fucking green flame died on me, they were supposed to last forever and it died on me!" Linda rolled her eyes at Leigh, and Kyle tried to figure it out working out some random math problem in his head. Nikki looked at me and shrugged, it was Adem who spoke next

"Yes the fire itself is rumoured to last forever, but Mr Black actually told me, that it doesn't last forever just a very long time, the poison in the flame burns for years, even maybe longer. However I reckon you just burnt it all out with your amazingly cool theatrics." We all looked at each other in agreement. And Shane slinked away with his head still square down at the ground. He muttered

"yeah, your right, that's probably it…" just before he left speaking range Kyle indicated that he'd follow him, nikki kissed me on the cheek and said she was going to meet her friends and invited Adem to come with her, he agreed, Linda and Leigh waved and said that they were going to catch up with Shane. Something about "not missing this for the life of her", and so I stood awkwardly in the middle of the hall waiting for the professor, it didn't take him long. I noticed because my wristband had the words _"please greet the illustrious professor gast" _this was the second time I'd actually even heard about the professor having a last name. and the first time I really took it in, it was an odd last name I kept looking at my watch until I was interrupted by the professor himself

"its actually horaitio gast, always thought the professor was such a formal name don't you" horaitio gast, it seemed a little funny, but I suppose it suited the professor perfectly, somehow I knew that the odd be-speckled moustached man in front of me would more than likely have an odd name anyway.

"You wanted to see me professor?" The professor dusted himself and looked around the hall obviously surveying how the obstacle course he helped build with Mr Jackson

"Tell me how did you go in the obstacle course? Brilliant idea that was, I tell you that Jackson Holmes is a smart man!" I looked around the room rather uninterestedly I didn't care for this small talk. The professor wanted to tell me something, and I really wanted to know what it was

"Oh I went okay, Adem beat me though, and he's really taken well to raven faction too" the professor smiled at me and nodded

"Yes, yes I thought he would, truth be told some people are just better suited for the snake faction than others, it just differs on the person I suppose. But I might as well get on with it. I called you here because I have figured out the solution to your problem" the solution? I wasn't even sure I had a problem, nor was I sure it needed fixing. But I knew what the professor meant; he meant how to evolve my powers past that of the blood suit, it actually kind of scared me a little bit. I had so much power now, and I was only just starting to grasp the idea of it. If I had more, more of this limitless omnipotence the professor was talking about earlier. I don't think I could handle it.

"What do you mean professor? Solution?" the professor rubbed his eyes in a sign of stress and then looked rather downheartedly at me.

"Yes, the solution, the answer to your evolution stagnation, but first tell me have you noticed a change in your body since you got here?" In a matter of fact I had, and it always confused me. Gradually my body was making itself better; I was getting more muscle tone. Darker skin, maybe even a little taller, and it made no sense at all.

"Actually yes why professor" The professor rubbed his glasses clean and began to talk again

"What kind of changes Navar?" I pulled up my sleeve so the professor could see my full masculine arm

"Like this professor, look at my arm. When I got here, my skin was pale, I was skinny and I had no muscles at all. At first I thought it was just you know, sunlight and better food and stuff. But it's starting to become really drastic, I don't mind though, it's like my body is kind of healing itself" the professor looked up and down my arm and mentally noted something. He continued turning his gaze to my severed hand

"And tell me Navar how's your hand, the one phoenix mistakenly cut off?" Mistakenly cut off? I had a different opinion than the professor on that one, that bastard provoked me into an attack. But I wasn't about to argue with the professor, I was more than sure he was on my side in that incident anyway, besides it was more than a blessing in disguise, my severed hand was one of the most useful things I'd ever had, and allowed me to use my powers in an every day way, without having to use my blood suit.

"My hand? Its fine…I actually like it!" the professor smiled at me and nodded and then began to continue further

"Would you say, perhaps that your hand feels totally human when it is not being contorted into other things" in fact it did, it was perfectly human hand, at least it felt like it

"Uh yes sir, but I don't get it what does my hand have to do with anything?" the professor had a sullen look on his face again

"Im afraid it has everything to do with it, If it wasn't for that unfortunate accident I would not of worked out the solution, problem is I doubt your going to like it" I was getting scared, something about how the professor sounded and how he said "I wasn't going to like it" kind of scared me. I looked at my hand and then up to the professor in a confused fashion

"Im afraid my solution is inevitable in any case based on what you just told me, however I think you may be able to find a way to speed it up. That however remains to be seen and is based purely on you." Now I was really getting scared

"Professor am I going to die?" the professor chuckled a little and I really did seem to cheer him up a little bit

"Good heavens no boy, what gave you that idea? No, no death is a far off thing for you Im afraid, as Im sure you noticed when you were stabbed through the heart at the last competition. No Navar what Im talking about is that You have already seemed to notice that your body is changing, but you have identified this wrong, which is what had me stumped for a while, but then I took in account your hand. And the condition of your supposed disease, you remember that I described to you that your blood was essentially eating your body from the inside because it had no elements to absorb yes? Well your blood is still doing that Navar, your blood is still eating away at your body, chipping away at it. That's why you have noticed these subtle changes in your body, it's your blood, chipping away at your body itself." I was trembling; I think I was really terrified. I gulped in some air, and started thinking about everything that I now held dear, and how my stupid supposed power was still doing what it was always doing, but this time it was just disguised as a good thing. They always say the devil's best trick is to trick you into think your actually doing god's work. Here was a bad thing, a terrible thing being disguised as a good thing. I started to mull over my life again, getting lost my thoughts again until the professor interrupted me

"My dear Navar there is no need for such duress, you see I thought that this was a grim prognosis, so I began to look into other theories, however this is where I took in account your hand. You told me yourself that it feels no less normal than it did before no? (I nodded) well your body has been changing you every time you have been using your blood suit. My suggestion is this, however grim it sounds, take in account your hand to equation, let your blood eat your body, in turn you will be transformed entirely to yourself, but with all the metamorphic powers of your hand. Your blood is working towards it's final goal, your final evolution I hypothesize will be exactly like your hand there" I couldn't believe it, naturally it all made sense, but I just didn't want to believe it, If my blood was slowly waging a war with my body, what did that mean was I going to become a monster, at the end of it all, would I be human anymore? In the end will I even be me? I wasn't going to do it. There was no way I was going to lose my humanity

"Im not going to do it professor, Im not going to lose my humanity like that!" the professor shook his head and grabbed my special hand

"Im afraid you misunderstood Navar. Does this hand feel less human to you? You're not going to lose your humanity; it's just the next step in your evolution. Like young Kyle growing a tail. Or miss Bennett's wings becoming bladed. You are a part of the raven faction for a reason Navar you are meant to grow and evolve, you can't stop evolution Navar and it's not natural to fight evolution, nor can you! It's going to happen wether you like it or not, but your looking at this as a bad thing, its not Navar, it's a wonderful thing! You have to understand that you're not going to be any less human because of it, please believe me Navar! " I still refused to believe the professor, I know he was right, he was always right but it didn't matter to me I didn't want to change like that, sure my hand felt fine, but what would I be afterwards, would I breath air? Would I have organs? Will I have a heart? The professor put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me but soon after, his wristwatch beeped and he said he was sorry but he had to go to an urgent meeting and assured that he would talk to me soon. He left me standing in the middle of the hall totally confused. I had no idea what to do. I was so confused again. Everything was turning sour again. This stupid power of mine, that was once killing me, is still doing it. I just had to stop thinking about it, I couldn't think about it. I started walking out of the hall utterly annoyed at the entire world. I was walking down the corridor towards the dormitory. Paying attention to nothing until a loud voice yelled out angrily

"OI riddle!" it belonged to Andy he stormed past me and grabbed a hold of Shane in the collar and pulled him up from the ground where Shane was sitting half depressed, ha! I laughed to myself, he thought he had problems. Shane muttered to Andy in a completely quiet and monotone voice

"Now is not the best time for this Andrew, now let go of me you idiot" Andy screwed his face up tighter and dropped Shane on the ground. Even Linda and Nikki tried to tell Andy that now really wasn't the best time for this. He just shrugged them off. Kane, Josh and Ronny tried to pull him back away from Shane

"Get the hell away from me all of you! My mother just told me that your fathers decided to cheat on her" Shane turned around and pushed everyone out of his way

"Oh that would be your slut of a mother then? Guess dad's just been taking a step in her shoes then isn't he?" Andy and rushed at Shane, Shane didn't even bother to turn into flame just managed to dodge Andy's blow and then began to savagely punch him in the stomach. Everyone was standing around in a circle, trying to get them to stop fighting but all of them were afraid to use there powers, not that they could anyway, you were not allowed to use your powers against another student, it didn't stop Shane and Andy they were still beating at each other with little reprieve. I couldn't stand it, no more fighting; it was so stupid how any of them dare fight when they have the privilege of living. I didn't care what happened to me but I was stopping this battle. I stormed up to the circle and pushed in between josh and Kane who looked at me very worriedly I was just so angry with everything I really didn't know what to do.

"ENOUGH!" I thrust my severed hand up into the air in rage and it split my hand into two, it split into a massive bunch of tentacles and wrapped around Shane, and wrapped around Andy as well, immobilising both of them. I heard everyone talking to themselves asking how come I could use my powers against other people. I didn't really care at this point. I was still too angry

"What the hell is this about?" my voice was loud and angry and forceful, I barely recognised it as my own. They were both trying to free themselves of my restraints but they had little chance, I wanted answers, and now! Shane soon answered my questions for me still struggling to get free

"Nav you're looking at…Andrew Martin…Riddle"

"Don't call me that you idiot! Im no association of yours" Shane, and Andy related? It all seemed so trivial. But still completely un-realistic

"That's what this is about, your related? Seriously Shane that's pretty stupid!" said Linda from within the circle around them

"Were not related, Stop saying that, Im no brother of his!" screamed Andy trying his best to get free

"This is so retarded!" I yelled out between the two. The cool head of Kyle and Adem prevailed next

"Surely you two could work it out" said Kyle as his odd hair swung from side to side as his hands moved as he talked

"Maybe talk it out you two, or at least settle it in the battle tomorrow?" continued Adem using his compassionate eyes to try and calm the situation.

"No, Im through with this I want this idiot dead, him and his stupid drunk of a father" yelled Andy pointing at Shane

"I'd be drunk to if I had to look at a bush pig like your mother" they were screaming at each other fighting to get free of my controls, everyone was still yelling at Andy and Shane to calm down, but they were just getting so angry, then from out of no where

"KEELAN!" it was phoenix madden, great just what I needed this blow bag making everything more difficult he stormed up to the crowd and walked into the circle

"Keelan! What the hell do you think your doing attacking the students?" attacking the other students? What the hell was he on about, I looked around at the situation, I suppose he could take it that way, anyone that was looking hard enough could take this situation as my fault. Great this was becoming the best day.

"How dare you attack two helpless students, and with your powers as well, I don't know how you got past your inhibitors but Ile bet you did something sneaky, just like when you tried to hit me. Drop them at once you're in a lot of trouble" he was totally taking this the wrong way, I was trying to save this situation, saving these two from killing each other. Worst more he wasn't listening to anyone telling him otherwise

"I…I wasn't, I was trying to…" he looked even more furious with me. I could tell it was fake, but I think everyone else thought it was genuine

"save it Keelan, the evidence here is stacked all against your favour, what I don't know is how some stupid twerp who's been a hospitalised bed ridden burden to society, finds the audacity and nerve to do…this!" I couldn't believe it! He just gave away my secret, my biggest secret that I was trying to keep from everyone; I didn't want anyone to know I was a cripple for like sixteen years of my life, no one needed to know that. No one! Everyone would look at me differently, feel pity on me, think I was a cripple and treat me like I was disabled. I could no longer be normal, no one would want to be friends with me anymore, he just ruined my whole brand new life. I was angry before, but now I was blinded by rage, I hardly noticed everyone's faces looking at me. I was completely stunned by rage, I didn't want to see their pitying faces. I didn't want their pity; I just wanted to be normal! And he denied me that. When I finally opened my eyes he was gone. I knew where he was going, he was going to see the professor, I didn't care about the ramifications anymore, everything about this life was now over, I just wanted him to pay

"I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL HIM! I heard some of my old friends yell out my name, I didn't care I didn't need there pity I just wanted Madden dead. I ran off chasing that red cloak around corners, it was always just one step ahead of me, I had to catch up, I had to make him pay he had to suffer for ruining my happiness. My first amount of happiness, I followed the red cloak all the way to Phoenix's office but I was too late, the door was closed. I kicked it open and fashioned my hand into a cruel serrated blade, this time his hand was coming off, it and everything else. I didn't even find it odd that phoenix went into his office instead of the professors I didn't care. The lights were turned off. That odd itching feeling in the back of my head began to flare up, I pushed it away, I didn't care, when suddenly I felt as if the darkness itself was moving, I swiped at in frustration, but nothing happened. I struck higher this time, and I hit something, the darkness formed itself into a cloak, it was that odd grim reaper spectre I swore I saw sometimes, I must be crazy again, blinded by rage. The white mask staring back at me had a gash in the top of its head where I stuck it, it was a cruel white mask, it was quite neutral besides some odd tribal tattoos running down on side of it, and two marks underneath the eyes. I shut my eyes; I was beginning to feel woozy again. The creature made a horrible sound that felt like it was shaking my very fabric of being, I tried to strike at it with my hand-blade but instead my knees gave out from under me, I fell to the ground, my whole body was succumbing to this odd spectre in front of me, everything was going white again, I could feel my body losing control, the last thing I remember was a black hand, a hand as black as darkness itself reaching to my forehead.

CHAPTER 20

Friends

"Navar?" voices again

"Navar are you ok?" more voices.

"Navar! You have to wake up, wake up Navar!" voices and now someone shaking my shoulder, I didn't care, I didn't want to wake up. I tried to shrug off the shoulders, I wanted to stay asleep.

"Navar dude you have to wake up" it was another voice, it sounded male. It sounded like Shane. I still didn't care. I didn't want to be awake

"Hey nav, wake up Navar, you can't be dead I can see you breathing" another male voice, I tried to shrug it off again, focusing on the darkness that was trying to crush me into its vice. I didn't want to wake up

"Nav man, c'mon dude, wake up, we need you to wake up man" another voice, another infuriating voice trying wake me from my sweet requiem. The voice sounded like Leigh

"Navvy, navvy wake up, please, please wake up!" it was her. Her voice, her gentle voice washing over me, I couldn't fight it, I didn't want too, my whole body didn't want too. My mind wanted me to say asleep, to fall into this crushing embrace. But my body wouldn't let me, it was fighting my head. I still tried to fight it, I thought I was winning; and I was winning until I felt hand on my chest. Her hand, that beautiful hand, it was flowing through me, her beautiful calm essence was flowing through me, I couldn't do anything, the looming darkness was being lifted, being replaced with her beauty, the black abyss was turning into white clouds, light was flooding back into my existence. I tried to fight it, I did my best. But I couldn't do it. There was no fighting it, with little time my eyes were open and everyone was standing over me looking down. And smiling, they were smiling. They were not all staring down at me like I was a sick puppy. I didn't understand, I still wasn't ready to say anything, before I could get up nikki wrapped her arms around me and slammed me back on the ground. Linda spoke next

"Since when could you heal nikki?" Nikki could heal? Since when could nikki heal? I didn't really care at this point, everything was too far away for me to care about anything but the fact that my friends were here. They were still here

"Nav, dude what happened? You ran off in a massive blinded rage saying you were gonna kill Mr madden, and then we find you in his office? Surely you know he was going into the professors office?" questioned Leigh, but he was wrong, I was following phoenix the whole way here, all the way until I opened the door and was attacked by that figment of my imagination, at least I think it was a figment of my imagination. It had to be, it couldn't be real. I just passed out from rage.

"I…I followed…him…straight…he…I…followed" I couldn't even string a coherent sentence together I noticed everyone shaking there heads at me. Linda bent down to my level and put a hand on my shoulder, the one Nikki wasn't occupying

"nav, he was clearly seen leaving the professors room, he was trying to get you pulled out of the competition the bastard, he wasn't even listening to anyone, but luckily the professor actually listened to us, and found out that you were trying to help the situation, not exacerbate the situation, he also mentioned that you would be under an unusual amount of stress at the moment and that what you did goes to prove your strength of character even more" nikki hugged me even more and kissed me on the cheek. Linda got up and looked at Shane a bit evilly, Shane bent down to my level as well and looked very annoyed at Linda

"What I did was my own business Linda, no matter how completely stupid it was, and if you recall HE started it not me. (he then turned his gaze to me and looked very concerned) nav, that was a really good thing you did, I was already pissed off about losing my green fire, and then Andy came along, and he just gave me the perfect chance to take my anger out of him, and Im sorry you got involved, but nav…why did you storm off like that? you had us all heaps worried man!" worried? I had them worried? I honestly thought they wouldn't want anything to do with me, let alone still wanting to know me, I was so confused. I pushed myself up against the wall I passed out near; Nikki re-shifted herself so she was still lying across me with her face. Her beautiful face, staring up at me, they were all looking at me, waiting for an answer. They all took a seat near me and awaited the answer they all craved; I really didn't want to give it. But Im pretty sure I had no choice

"are you sure you really want to know, I mean you don't think Im retarded or something?" Linda laughed a bit and it was Kyle who was shifting himself around trying to make his tail comfortable who spoke first

"nav, how could we know what too think all we really knew is that you spent along time in a hospital, that could of meant that you could of volunteered in a hospital, or even been an doctor inturn you left with no explanation, and no why would we think your retarded? We didn't think you were retarded before, why should we now?" I smiled at Kyle; he always had a good way to explain things when he wasn't getting caught up in his own enthusiasm

"Though it does explain why your such an idiot sometimes, like honestly who's never seen a mobile before?" said Nikki a couple of people laughed, I don't know if I was ready for laughter yet, I tried to pull on a grin, except a cough came out. I shook it off and turned to explain myself

"Ok fine, if you really want to know…yes I have spent like most of my life in a hospital. As a matter of fact I could barely move, the doctors all thought that I had a rare blood disease where my blood itself was eating my body from the inside out, so my blood was pumped full of blood thickeners to slow the process. So it was really hard for me to do anything, the doctors were afraid of what would happen if my blood came in contact with the other world in such a state, so until a while ago, my blood had never seen the outside of my body" there was a massive audible shock by everyone in the room. I think they couldn't believe it either

"Oh nav that sounds horrible, absolutely horrible. How did you cope for so long? What sixteen years? You probably wanted to die!" said Linda with as much empathy I think I've ever seen someone muster. It was true, I did want to die. All my life as far as I could remember I wanted to die. But I couldn't no one would let me, besides I wouldn't do it to my mum. Leigh spoke next

"But nav how did you get from there to here?" as a matter of fact I hadn't given this much thought about this, I never really wanted too. But I remember it I remember an explosion that came from no where, a freak explosion. And just before the worst of it, a cut slicing up my arm, that must have been how I survived the explosion, that must have been the first time I used my blood suit, used it in my subconscious.

"Well…it's strange, there was the freak explosion, and I dunno what the hell it was. But all I remember about it was that just before the worst of it, something cut my arm. And I must of used my blood suit subconsciously, coz the next thing I woke up outside unscathed. Next thing I know Im rushed onto a plane with Mr Jackson, and then Im here with all you guys" a lot of people nodded it was Linda that spoke next

"I suppose that explains why your always so lost in your goddamn thoughts all the time doesn't it, because for sixteen years that's all you had, your thoughts, oh nav it must have been horrible" nikki and Linda giggled a little, they always loved to pay me out about being stuck in my thoughts so much. Adem spoke next, it was the first time I have heard him since I woke up

"Navar you have so much to be grateful for here, and you are such a wonderful person now, it shouldn't matter where you came from, but we all have parts of our history we want to keep secret, you shouldn't be ashamed of it, look at the person you are now, you should be proud of yourself for being such an amazing person considering the circumstances" I smiled at Adem. His generous and caring nature shining through yet again, Shane nodded at Adem, and for the first time place a hand on Adem's shoulder, Adem flinched a little and Shane just smiled at him until he turned his attention to me being completely serious about it

"Like me for example nav, my life was terrible before this. My mother died, and only two years later my dad marries so hussy that lives in America. And tells me he wants to go live there! I'd only met Andy a couple of time's when that woman came to stay at our house, she bought him a couple of times, he hated my father for breaking up his relationship between his mother and his father, and I always hated his mother for replacing mine. And then I find out that he just happens to be here, as someone with powers as well. Ahh he just aggravates me so much, thinking his mother was such an angel. And the fact that he had powers too was just the icing on the cake. My point is, I was glad when I came here as well" Linda looked at Shane a little differently for once and just kept staring at Shane for a little, I think slowly her opinion about Shane was changing until she turned her attention to me again

"Our life wasn't great either nav. Leigh and I came together because both of our single parents were abusive drunks, we had to get out, we met at a shelter and then moved into some crappy house together living off the dole because our parents couldn't give a shit about us. Believe us, this place was the best thing that ever happened to us" Linda begun to get a little teary eyed and Leigh wrapped his hands around Linda and pulled her into his wide arms so she could cry it off" Kyle was next to share his past

"Mine's not as bad as everyone else's my life was just stagnant and the same. Nothing was ever different, and there was nothing that made me different. It's a bit like how Shane described his life before his mum died. But this place is so great, it gives me a place to really nurture everything about my personality, I have everything I could ever want." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair. To tell the truth I was surprised when his hand made it out the other end unscathed. Adem slid a little closer and looked at everyone and then back to me

"You see what I mean? My point is that everyone has complicated histories, your's is just one of many, sure maybe a little morbid. Mine wasn't as bad as some of yours. But I lived on a farm. In Tasmania, my parents never really liked me; maybe it was because I had three younger brothers, and two younger sisters. I was always overlooked when something good happened, and always blamed when something bad happened. I was hardly ever even treated like I was there. So you can believe I was shocked when Mr Jackson came to visit me. And now Im here and I have an identity for the first time in my life… I have an identity, Im my own person, Im Adem Im not just the babysitter and scapegoat for all of my little brothers and sisters, so nav cheer up were all here for you and we all understand your reservations about sharing your history something's are just private you know" I suppose that explained why Adem was always so quiet, he was always used to being a part of the background never really having his own identity, it sounded horrible to be invisible even though you were right in front of someone, not even I had that kind of treatment. Everyone turned who Nikki who was still hugging me, she dried off her eyes a little bit and sat up a little bit so she was facing everyone and shrugged a little.

"I don't want to sound facetious or anything but my life really hasn't been that bad. I mean my dad's never really home he's always off working for that big company. And then we had to move to Australia from all my friends and my country Canada, I guess Im glad to be back in Canada I suppose, but I really had all I wanted, daddy was never short on money if you know what I mean" a couple of people rolled there eyes a little but other than that they were all sympathetic. There was an odd feeling of this office, it was a feeling of closeness everyone was closer than we ever was before, I suppose revealing your secrets to everyone leaves you a little vulnerable, I felt closer to everyone of these people, and even more so I felt happy again. I got up and dusted myself off

"Thank you so much guys, Im so… Im just so happy to have you all of my friends, the first part of my life may have been crappy, but because of you all the second part of it is looking to be fantastic. Today is just the start of a new life for me, coming here was the start of a brand new life, and Im so thankful to have you all in it." I think everyone blushed, the girls went to hug me a little bit, and I got some nice looks from most of the guys. Kyle broke the moment first

"But there's something I don't get nav, why did you pass out? Do you think it was just because of an overwhelming amount of feelings, because Im not too sure, you look pretty haggard when we got here." I knew the answer, I knew it stupid. And that no one would believe me, but in the spirit of all the sharing I decided I might as well bite the bullet

"Ok its stupid, and it probably was me just imagining it or something but I could have sworn it happened! I swear to god I followed phoenix here, I absolutely swear to god, and then when I got here the lights were off, and I couldn't see anything but then the shadows themself started forming into something, as if the darkness was watching me, and the weird thing this has happened to me before, you know that time I passed out the first time, you know when that pegahtini girl got murdered, I saw it again, this weird grim reaper with this weird white mask, I managed to cut it with my arm, but then it screamed this horrible noise, and my whole body felt like it was just a bunch of goo, I couldn't do anything, I just passed out…that's all I could do…pass out, I couldn't fight it!" everyone looked at each other and I could see a little scepticism but I didn't care. Nikki looked at me concerned and asked the first question

"what do you mean you've seen this before?" the answer confused me, it was like sometimes when I felt that I odd feeling in the back of my head, I looked back at shadows and there would be a weird flash of that horrible mask, but when I looked again there was nothing but shadows, not to mention the spectre I saw creeping out somewhere near the control room the night the pegahtini girl got killed.

"Look its stupid, don't worry about it" the girls nodded there heads and the boys were still looking at me generally interested

"Nav! It's not stupid; you may be able to solve who killed that pegahtini girl! So tell us what you mean! " they really believed me? That's strange, considering I didn't even believe myself.

"Well it's just like I have this weird like pre cognitive ability that warns me when there's danger near right? Well sometimes I get it when Im near shadows, like at the mall nikki I could of swear I saw something in the shadows a little bit before that pot-plant fell on you. And just all the time, it's like it stalking me, this shadow spectre." Everyone looked at each other a couple of them talked about it to themselves. Kyle stepped forward with that face that looked like he was working out a maths problem again

"So if this thing is real, I guess it would explain pegahtini's death. It simple though, you said you attacked it near the forehead right? It's simple if we see anyone with cuts above there head we can consider them suspects. The best chance will be at the competition tomorrow, that's where everyone will be, so those of us that are actually in it can see if its anyone in our close proximity, and Linda and Leigh you guys can just have a look in the crowd and see if its anyone" it was a good plan, and it made sense so I nodded back to Kyle, and we all agreed to follow it. I was still confused to as why everyone believed me, how could they? It was so ludicrous, figures stalking me in a grim reaper suit and a white porcelain mask. It was just so stupid. But I suppose it couldn't hurt to investigate it. We all left the room, and made for dinner. I spent the rest of the time simply enjoying the company with all of my friends, My beautiful friends.

CHAPTER 21

A spider's web

Today was the day of the last competition, the final battle that was a battle royale, and we were all graded on our individual performance. And before that was an exhibition match between the heads of each faction. I was really looking forward to it, I didn't even know what powers any of the teachers had, let alone what there superhero's name was, I was very much anticipating it. The actual battle I was not looking forward to at all. Since the professor told me about the evolution of my powers, I was a little scared to use them. I knew that my blood suit was eating away at my very self very slowly, and I didn't want to use it, I didn't want to lose myself to my own blood. But I couldn't forfeit and there was nothing I could do but fight, and go out there and lose. I suppose other people deserved to win more than me. Besides there was some sort of prize, I imagined it would be ridiculous and of no use to a poor kid like myself. And even sadder was that in a couple of days would be holidays, and I would have to leave this amazing place and go home and spend it away from my friends. And the only good thing about that was that I was allowed to see my mum again. But everything back in that life, my previous life was just too depressing, Im not sure if I would be able to cope with leaving everyone. Leaving without nikki, without Shane's misunderstood arrogance, Adem's quiet understanding caring nature, Kyle's contradiction of a personality half amazingly boisterous and vibrant, and yet caring and amazingly intelligent when he wanted to be, Linda's caring and always wanting to help me, and always make life just that little harder for Shane when she could, Leigh's fun loving nature and his resolve to increase his powers more and finally nikki, her caring, her warmth, the way her hair smelt, the way she laughed, the way she cried. I would miss her most out of everybody, but that didn't make the other people any less important, I couldn't stand the idea of not seeing any of them again. I opened my eyes and Kovu noticed and he started to walk up to my lap. I'd forgotten about Kovu

"Least I'le have you hey Kovie, you'll still be there" there was a voice from somewhere near the left of me, it was Nikki

"what you mean you still have Kovu, you gonna deciding on pulling a runner on all us nav?" nikki was still in her pyjama's it was amazing how she managed to make plain silk pyjama's look like she was wearing evening wear. I was still being attached, I had to try and focus on living on the here and now, it didn't stop my face still looking sad

"its, just that the holidays are coming up, and that means everyone's going to go home and I wont be able to see anyone, especially you." Nikki laughed and slapped my forehead a little playfully

"Nav you idiot your forgetting we both live in Sydney!" of course I totally forgot that! She moved to Sydney just recently oh my god I thought to myself how much of an idiot I was. But I was so overwhelmed with happiness, that I didn't care I pulled nikki onto the bed and wrapped my arms around the her, almost squeezing Kovu in the process, he meowed and protest and ran out to go wherever he always goes. We were still kissing when Shane walked past and shot us a remark

"You two at it again eh? Jeez guys, lay it off some of us WERE trying to sleep" and he walked off towards the bathroom. We decided it was probably best to stop now because everyone was getting ready and getting dressed, after we all changed into our clothes we sat around of beds talking about today's upcoming events.

"Today's going to be very interesting, like we have to verse each other, we've only ever done that once before and you absolutely kicked our ass last time" said Kyle, and it was true I did manage to beat Shane and Kyle before, but everyone's powers were a little different back then

"Yeah, but you two are so much stronger now!" I rebutted. I didn't think to let them into my dilemma of not wanting to use the blood suit, I really had no idea what I was going to do, but I didn't want to give them a false sense of confidence.

"Yeah but you got a better control over your powers as well" said Shane as Adem lifted his head and joined the conversation

"I've versed Navar, and yes he's a challenging opponent, but his most powerful ability is his cool head in battle, he always figures out a way to use your weakness's against you, however I had very little control of my abilities, I think I have a better chance now, however Im more afraid of going against Shane, that performance last battle was amazing, how do you fight someone when touching them burns you?" Shane looked sullen and stared at the ground

"Yeah, well will see how this battle goes now shall we?" Shane was still depressed that he had to conserve his energy again, when before he could throw it around recklessly Kyle spoke next

"And yet no one's afraid to verse me yet! Oh just you wait Im going to win this one baby, you can't get something you can't catch! However I would say, Im probably the most scared about fighting Adem. Your fists were smashing the floor itself! And were also forgetting that you can absorb powers as well!" Adem blushed a little and the rest of us all looked at Adem, Kyle brought up a valid point, Adem could absorb powers, yet the only power he had used so far was mine, which was apparently permeantely coded to his mutant gene

"Why haven't you absorbed anyone else's powers anyway Adem?" Adem shrugged and turned his gaze too me

"well its not like I haven't been doing It intentionally, I mean I know I can do it, Im a little stuck on the how to do it, besides I didn't try in my battle against Navar because I wanted to keep it fair, it would be cheating to do so against an opponent who hadn't done otherwise, however I intend to draw on it for my next battle, so you all better watch out" Adem yet again showing his beautiful selfless attitude, and with a surprise a fighting spirit I hadn't seen him with. Linda spoke next

"Whatever the outcome I more than doubt it's going to be interesting, but your all forgetting Andy's going to be in this battle as well, before it took two of you to take him down, none of you know how his powers have progressed. And you know what's going to be exciting even more, the teacher's exhibition match! I can't wait, to see what power Mr Jackson has! And I wonder what his hero name will be!" another valid point I really had no idea what powers all the teachers would have, we spent the rest of the time until the match talking about everything from what we thought the factions leaders full powers and superhero names would be, to how most of us didn't even want to go home and would rather spend more time with each other, we made plans of maybe hiring out some cabin and staying with each other for a while. After a while, it was time to leave we all remembered to keep a look out for someone with a scar across their forehead and set off for the stadium.

Adem, Shane, Kyle and myself had to get changed by ourselves, because Mr Jackson was getting ready for his exhibition match, everyone kept looking at each other suspiciously, sizing each other up, I wasn't looking forward to fighting my friends, there was not one of them I would choose to go against one on one, let alone against each other, eventually we were all ready and our wristwatches indicated that we were supposed to go outside, where there would be a special booth set up so we could watch the exhibition match. We got outside, I sat on the right side of everybody and Andy took a seat next to me, he was grinning widely and kept maliciously staring at Shane, he shook my hand and wished me good luck, and asked me kindly to focus on someone else. I laughed a little bit. The hall or stadium as it was renamed for this match was completely black and we couldn't see anything, until a solitary spot light lit up on the middle of the stage, it was the professor wearing his usual white coat. He shushed the crowd for quiet, which seemed a little harder than usual, the crowd was going absolutely bunter when he finally got silenced he tested the microphone and began his speech

"Welcome, welcome ladies and gentlemen to this the final of our exciting in school battle competition! Before we continue with the exhibition match of all your faction leaders, I have surprising and delightful news. As many of you know there is a grand prize for the winner of today's battle, and believe me it is quite astounding of a prize, firstly the winner will receive a trust fund to use on whatever they wish to the balance of one million dollars!" the crowd went insane with chatter, all of us sitting in our booth looked at each other completely stunned, a million dollars! That ridiculous, but I tried to think how much I could use that money, I could finally move mum out of that impoverished home and into something more suiting her amazing personality, I could have a new life away from this place, one that I was proud of. Now I was more confused than ever. The professor continued

"Secondly the winner will win a fully set up mansion, that's right a fully set up mansion on the harbour of Sydney! It has over 20 rooms and comes fully serviced and staffed!" a mansion, a…mansion! and it ironically was in Sydney, I think somehow the professor more than expected me to win this competition. We all looked at each other even more stunned. I could use that mansion more than anyone here, well not so much more than Linda and Leigh perhaps. But they could stay with me! I was so totally confused. The professor continued

"and thirdly, and possibly the best item of all three prizes is the mysterious lunatic Pandora, it is a powerful piece of historical artefact. from where and when I cannot ascertain, however I know that this item holds an immense power, for what it does I trust the winner to find out" the professor opened a tiny red box, there sitting on a puffed piece of black fabric stood a brightly glowing piece of rock shaped like a crescent moon. We all looked at each other and shrugged. I could see everybody mulling over in there brain what they would do with the other prizes, I was so confused, I was fighting a war in my head on what to do. The professor called for silence again as he slipped the box back into his pocket.

"And without further ado let us get this exhibition match underway shall we. In the first corner we have the proud leader of the lion faction, and legend and hero in his own right…ladies and gentlemen the phoenix!" A spot light appeared somewhere in front of the lion faction's stand. There stood phoenix madden. He was wearing a red coat again with a black shirt and red pants to match his cloak. He was wearing thick flying goggles and headband to push back his hair so it was impossible to tell if he had a scar over his forehead, I thought to myself that it was ironic, and then without warning phoenix started floating in the air, and then a loud bird shrill screamed through the air. And phoenix burst into flame. And before us stood a flame visage of phoenix, near his feat the flame fanned out into a tail. Near his arms the flame fanned out into massive wings, and near his head stood a large phoenix head, it was truly an amazing sight, and he was massive, at least four meters tall he stood there floating and waiting silently. I looked over to Shane who was frothing at the mouth over phoenix's power; I suppose that's why he was called phoenix then. I laughed to myself. I still wanted to go down there and take him on myself, no matter how impressive his powers were. The professor continued again

"Yes, quite impressive isn't it? and in your next corner is the mysterious powerful and cunning Crispin Black, leader and visionary of the snake faction, ladies and gentlemen…venom!" a spot light appeared in the same fashion as it did with phoenix, there stood. Crispin he wore his usual cloak, he had his hair tied back and on his back were some large tanks. I didn't know what they were though; my answers were soon answered when the tanks roared to life shooting fires about three meters in front of him. The fire was reacting with Crispin's skin and creating green flame. I looked at Shane, he was still salivating even more this time, here were two people with the powers of flame, but none of them had the potential Shane did, I doubt he was seeing it at this point though. I snuck a look at Crispin's forehead and there was no cut. That was my two favourite suspects out the door. I was stumped. Next up was Mr Jackson he was the one I was looking forward to the most

"Yet another impressive power indeed. And now finally, esteemed and intelligent caring and strong and the fair leader of the raven faction Jackson Holmes! Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for thunderstroke!" the light appeared near the raven faction's stand, thunderstroke that was quite an odd name I thought to myself, Mr Jackson looked totally different, he wasn't in his usual suit and attire, he was wearing a black cloak, and under it looked like something that resembled black motorcycle armour, his hair was for once down and it flowed over his shoulders, his eyes were intense and penetrative, he was hardly recognizable. And with a loud crack, large arcs of purple lightening were flickering off Mr Jackson it was quite an impressive sight considering the rest of the hall was still dark as well. It was almost like Shane's flame suit but he had amazingly intense arcs of purple lightning arcing off him. The professor put up his hand and announced the battle as "begun" all the lights turned on and the stadium was drenched in lights, a loud bird shrill sounded and phoenix flew up to the top of the stadium circling his prey. Mr Jackson walked very slowly towards Crispin black lightning still arcing out of him from every direction. Crispin lunged ahead. With an impressive jump that looked easily super natural. He thrust his wrists towards Mr Jackson. Mr Jackson side stepped the attack easily enough his lightning bolts lipping the flame blasts as if they were slapping them down. Then from the top of the roof, a bird shrill sounded and phoenix flew from the top of the roof and swooped at Crispin and Mr Jackson enveloping them in the flame in his wings. Crispin shot some green flame directly at phoenix's wing which curiously burnt a hole in his wing as if he was burning a piece of paper. I imagined something about it burning hotter than the flame itself made the fire react odd. But I still had no clue, no one could know the precise ingredients in Crispin's poison he excreted however the real surprise came from Mr Jackson who burst into an amazing amount of lightning arcs clipping and electrocuting both Crispin and phoenix. Phoenix let out a bird shrill and flew off into the ceiling again, he pecked at the hole in his wing as if a bird was picking at a feather. Back on the ground, Crispin pulled a sword out, it was an odd sword, it had an odd black coating around everywhere but the cutting part of the blade, I assumed it was made of rubber, as to ground Mr Jackson's lightning blasts. I shared a thought of Crispin black, snake faction people weren't really suited to this kind of battle, they were more suited to more espionage and one on one hands to hands kind of fighting, however Crispin was a master a his art and was doing very well to defend himself. He smiled at Mr Jackson and then ran his finger along his blade, most probably as if to poison it. Mr Jackson turned his attention to Crispin, a rouge lightning blast hit Crispin poisoned edge blade, creating a spark which lit the sword into a flame of green flame. Crispin's sword was now a rubber sided green flamed, weapon of attack. The following attack was breathtaking to watch. Crispin was fighting his way to get into closer vicinity to Mr Jackson, as to fight him hands on he was deflecting every lightning blast that came near him, he was truly a master at swordsmanship. But soon it was to no avail, because three rouge blasts managed to hit Crispin in various places, his body erupted into a green flame, naturally guessing his skin contained the same poison himself, and thus the spark of lightning creating the flame off its skin itself, Crispin felt to the ground, the flames soon receded obviously having the power to control green flame meaning he had the ability to turn it off. Crispin fell to the ground and put his hand up to surrender, soon after the orange healing sphere enveloped him and he walked over near his stand and sat down. It wasn't really his fault. Crispin did excellently considering his abilities, I didn't matter how much I hated the man. He was a master of his art, and to last that long against other with such intimidating abilities was a true achievement. Obviously phoenix saw this as his chance to attack, he swooped at Mr Jackson who was caught off guard when the flame claws wrapped around his arms and dragged him up towards the roof and then suddenly let him go, cruelly letting him plummet painfully to the hard ground, Mr Jackson did not seem all that bothered, his lightning still licking around him, Mr Jackson tucked his legs in and flipped until he landed on his legs, actually forcing him down harder, it sent out an electrical shockwave about three meters wide. Mr Jackson cracked his neck and looked up at the phoenix, who was already angrily beginning to swoop, Mr Jackson quickly dodged the swoop and rolled onto his back. Shooting large beams of electricity up into the body of the fire bird, It lit up like and x ray for a couple of seconds until the fire bird let out a harsh bird shrill and flew to face Mr Jackson. It started to fan its wings, creating a firestorm of embers heading directly at Mr Jackson. Mr Jackson just smiled and clenched his fists his shoulders still smoking from when Phoenix grabbed him around the shoulders. More lightning arced of him then ever and slapped every ember that was even near him to nothingness. The fire bird breathed a massive beam of flame at Mr Jackson who only just narrowly managed to avoid the blast by concentrating a truly impressive beam of electrics in the middle of it managing to just split it just enough that it didn't envelope him completely. When the blast stopped most of Mr Jackson's cloak was burnt off and some of his hair as well. He kept walking forward till he made it to the lage fire bird, which was now resting on the ground. Mr Jackson's large masculine arms propelled him upwards in a massive burst of strength he landed somewhere near the birds chest and he placed his hands on it unleashing a storm of energy into him, and hundreds of thunderbolts struck the bird at the same time. The flames quickly receded afterwards, phoenix landed in a heap on his knee's and soon after the orange healing sphere appeared over him, he amazingly waved to the crowd and returned to his seat near the lion faction slowly. As much as I totally despised the man, surviving an electric shock like that was an amazing feat of strength. But the clear winner was Mr Jackson, he was simply amazing. He sure showed Phoenix what a book worm could do! His powers were really stunning, what was even more stunning was Mr Jackson himself, he managed to keep his cool, and control every situation around him keenly. Just like everything he was teaching us I finally understood what he meant about our powers not being everything we had to rely on, all the other faculty members were quickly healed and the professor walked into the middle gesturing his hands on either sides of him leaving a wake of fixed floorboards, un-scorched walls, and un melted ceiling lights and the like. The professor's power was truly amazing as well, it really looked like he had the power to fix things, but it begged the question of what exactly could he "fix' and what indeed did "fixing" qualify. I decided it wasn't worth thinking about

"ah man Mr madden didn't win!" it was Andy, next to me he punched the chair in front of him and kept looking in the crowd, it was odd because I just imagined phoenix madden was a bastard to everyone, not just me

"You like that guy?" Andy looked up at me and nodded, I don't think he was quite aware I was listening to him.

"Yeah he can a bit pompous at times, but he's really cool actually! And if you heard what he's done for hero kind, it's just amazing! Well that's to say he used to be cooler, he's changed a little more recently" I rolled my eyes at Andy

"You know he cut off my hand right?" Andy looked at my hand and then made a facial expression like he just worked out a maths equations

"Oh so that's how you got that? Oh well isn't it better like that? He probably did it on purpose!" I couldn't believe this; I just shook my head at Andy

"You're insane" Andy looked a little shocked at my comment but just shrugged his shoulders. I turned my attention back onto the others who were already in conversation

"Did you see Mr Jackson he kicked ass!" I said, as everyone turned there attention to me, Adem Shane and Kyle nodded at me. Adem spoke first

"I must admit he did quite well, I tell you what I wouldn't mind absorbing some of his power that's for sure, however I reckon considering his abilities, Mr black did excellently don't you think" I rolled my eyes at Adem and moved my gaze closer to Kyle

"How cool was he dude?" Kyle looked at me he had quite an excited face on him

"That was soo cool! They all had like totally awesome powers, Mr Jackson was like zappity zap zap. And did you see Crispin he was all like dodging with ninja skills and stuff! Oh and phoenix, I don't care how much of a bastard he is that was a totally cool power! I wonder if I can control lightning." I didn't bother answering Kyle, he was totally lost at my thoughts, I turned my gaze to Shane, but he was completely lost, he was still looking at his hands and then back on the field, obviously trying to guess if he could do what phoenix did, or something, I didn't care I gave up and sunk back in my seat, I still wasn't looking forward to the next battle, no how prestigious the prizes were, and how good they would be. I just didn't know what I was going to do. I was interrupted by the professor who had rounded up the now completely healed faculty clothes and all. I really didn't know how those healing spheres worked. I had a suspicion that it was some sort of combination of the professor's powers, and the institutes nurse. The professor called for silence

"Ladies and gentlemen was that not most excellent? A most gracious and daring show of powers honed to their top most perfection, everyone did brilliantly, you all did brilliantly! However there was a clear winner. Leader of the Raven faction, and in yet another win for the raven faction Jackson Holmes ladies and gentlemen "the thunderstroke" "the crowd erupted with ceremonious applause, it didn't matter what faction they were from, everyone was applauding along. I guess everyone was just as plainly impressed as I was. It was truly an amazing site, to behold. I clapped along, as hard as I could. The professor handed the microphone to Mr Jackson as he was recomposing himself back into the distinguished man we knew him as. He tied his hair back up and put his glasses back on and pushed them back up into his face

"Thank you, thank you very much for your generous applause, but please don't thank me entirely, your other faction leaders did a truly riveting attempt as well. A round of applause for them as well" an obedient round of applause sounded through the hall, it wasn't as loud as the applause for Mr Jackson himself but it was still loud, Mr Jackson called for silence again

"a special round of a applause for Crispin Black, who bravely agreed to step foot in this exhibition match, knowing full well his powers were completely unsuited for arena battle, and didn't he do brilliantly ladies and gentlemen!?" There was a loud applause, he truly did do well. He defended the honour of the snake faction brilliantly Mr Jackson called for silence again

"and please another round of applause for the heroic Phoenix madden, who with his amazing power, and not even that, had an amazing strength to stay perfectly conscious after an astounding amount of electric bursts" the claps rang through the hall. Everyone was clapping everyone but me, Adem, Shane and Kyle. We didn't care how well he did, that man was still a bastard. Andy kept clapping though; I just rolled my eyes again. Finally Mr Jackson passed the microphone on to the professor, and all the faction leaders sat down near there retrospective houses, suddenly five points were placed equally in a large circle around the large stadium and the professor began to speak

"And now ladies and gentlemen the final battle, gentlemen will you all please come down and place yourself on one of these five markers so we can begin the final battle. Good luck gentlemen, and believe me the prize is worth it as you so very well know. My gut wrenched I walked down drowning in the roar of the crowd. And there I stood on one of the five markers, about to face four people that wanted me unconscious. And I still had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

CHAPTER 22

Endgame

This was it. the endgame, the final battle, winner takes all, not just it all, but a million dollars worth of prizes, a fully furnished mansion, and some ridiculous artefact known as "the lunatic Pandora". But I had no idea what to do, if I battle, Im just helping my own blood steal my humanity away from me, if I don't I lose the chance to change my life for the better, forever, but what was a new life worth if I was slowly losing myself anyway? I thought to myself how confused I was. I just didn't know what to do. I couldn't decide either way, I was fighting a fight with myself. Hmmf I actually was literally fighting myself my blood trying to eat my body, it was just far too much to handle.

The crowds roar was amazing. It was shaking the very vibrations of the stadium itself. I looked round to everyone else. We were all equally placed in different spots around the stadium so we were all facing each other from the centre of the stadium. We were all deep in concentration; Kyle was acting out a scene with his hands, what scene I couldn't ascertain. Shane was staring at his fists with an intense amount of concentration. Adem was doing what he always did. Stare at the ground. And Andy had formed his fists into boulders and was pounding them together looking at Shane with an intense hatred. I had no idea how I looked, I was just so confused. I had no idea what to do. I was just running my hands through my hair standing there on this black marker. Weak, broken and confused when suddenly the lights went out again, there was a couple of murmurs, I think I heard Andy say something about a blackout, I was a bit more cluey, obviously this was more cheap theatrics. I tried to step off my black mark and I couldn't, I was stuck. Naturally this made sense, they were trying to keep us here so we wouldn't ruin there cheap theatrics. A spotlight appeared in the middle of the stadium, it shined onto the professor he called for silence and began to talk again

"ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final stadium battle, an amazing strength of courage, strong heads in battle and fantastical use of their powers have brought these five here, and without further ado I shall introduce our brave fighters today… if you can all put your hands together for obelisk of the lion faction!" hands clapped in ceremonious applause and Andy stuck a pose and concentrated, his muscle's went from skin to rock, his hair grew into a bald rock of a head, and he grew at least a foot bigger than he originally was. He roared out in rage and waved to the crowd. The professor continued over the applause of the crowd

"Ladies and gentlemen, Ultima former member of the snake faction, now however he comes to us representing the prestigious Raven faction" the applause continued as Adem screamed in anger as his skin began to turn black again, and his muscle mass doubled. Tentacles whipped from his back, as Adem savagely tried to fight free of his restraint. The professor continued

"Ladies and gentlemen, up next is the impetuous and fast kitsune of the raven faction." Kyle jumped up doing a back flip, he sprouted his stick so it anchored into the ground, and he then ran on air, spinning the stick in the spot for a while until he flipped again landing on his feet and waving at the crowd, all in all a quite impressive display of acrobatics. The professor continued

"and ladies and gentleman, crowd troubadour, and excellent showman with an amazing amount of control over his powers, ladies and gentlemen, raven faction's…the blue flame!" the crowd clapped a little louder this time, Shane looked at his fists to a while, and then shrugged and slapped on a smile. I guess whatever decision he was making in his head, he just worked out. He burst into blue flame, faking a smaller version of phoenix's fire bird before he returned to hovering on the spot waiting for his cue to attack. The professor continued

"and finally ladies and gentlemen, everyone's crowd favourite and over all winner of the competition thus far, hailing yet again from the Raven faction everybody…blood!" a spot light flashed over me, and the crowd went absolutely wild, waiting for some sort of theatrical display, truth was, I still didn't know what to do. I just smiled and waved weakly at the crowd that was only just still drowned in darkness. Shane and Kyle looked at each other and just shrugged. Andy was still staring at Shane intently staring at Shane. And Adem was fighting savagely to be free of his restraints. The lights flashed on and everything was in usual light, and visibility was again virtually limitless. The professor was walking out of the hall and took a seat where our winners' stadium was placed. Phoenix sent out a yellow spark that flew to the middle of the room and then it exploded, our black marks soon dissipated and we were free to move. Free to move, It didn't matter I had no idea what I was going to do. And I had no chance against anyone here unless I used my blood suit. I looked up as a massive boulder flung across the stadium and slammed into Shane who got whacked into an invisible barrier somewhere near the lion stadium. Andy had little time to gloat, because Adem sent a massively thick tentacle square into his chest sending him recoiling. Adem went to lunge forward, but was slammed back into the ground by Kyle who had flipped over the top of him, and slammed him down with the full force of his stick extending perpetually. I still didn't know what to do, but my feet were unintentionally dragging me closer into the fray, I heard a bunch of voices from the nearby snake faction stand, I didn't care. None of them could understand my dilemma. Suddenly from my side I was thrown into the wall of the lion faction, my head was ringing, it was Adem, his tentacle retracted and kept trying to whip Kyle who was berating Adem like a mosquito would a human. Andy and Shane's battle was going a little one sided. But Shane was trying to fight everybody not just Andy he sent out a fireball that slapped over Kyle, sending him to scream in pain and throw him off balancing, allowing Adem to slap him into a nearby wall, Adem lunged at Kyle. But Kyle was way to quick and flipped off the wall and onto Adem's back kicking him even harder into the wall he was just lunging at, Kyle had little time to relax as a boulder was flying straight towards him, he managed to use it to his advantage by sticking his stick out to ride the recoil, extending his stick beyond any normal means to use Andy's force against him, the stick landed with a large thump across Andy's head. I tried to get up but from my left I was slapped down again, my shoulder was in burning pain, I yelped as my body began to heal itself. Luckily my burn cauterised my wound immediately, I was still yet to unintentionally bleed out. I heard more boo's and screams coming from the crowd, I had to make a decision, I couldn't just stand here while everyone was battling I had to do something. But what? If I activated my blood suit I would be just speeding up my degenerative process of losing my humanity. I took a look at my severed hand, was it really that bad? I decided my best option was to use my blood suit. One last time, and for the first time, I was actually a little excited. I screamed in anticipation and fashioned my hand into an axe and cut myself across the chest, it happened instantly that wonderful feeling as the blood gushed out of my chest, I didn't care if it felt good. The blood, at this very moment, was slowly feeding off my everything, my entire identity. But this was the last time. And I might as well make it good. When the transformation was finished I screamed in rage and exploded myself in hundreds of bladed tentacles, this caught the attention of most of the crowd who begun to start chanting "blood, blood, blood!" funny thing about my name was, that I have no idea if they were calling out for me, or the actual red substance. It didn't matter; it was my last chance to enjoy this. It also managed to catch the attention of the four others, they were all facing me at the same time and I had little time to react, luckily for some reason that pre-cognitive sense I had, which I had just named my spider sense, (as it resembled almost the exact same characteristics of Spiderman himself) was working overtime. A tentacle flew straight near me a managed to flip over it as a boulder was flung lower I stuck a tentacle of my own pushing Adem's tentacle under Andy's rock, I heard Adem yelp in anger as he retracted, his tentacle. I shot a tentacle up into the roof, and pulled myself up and swung myself in the direction of all of them. Shane was almost in front of me he shot a flame burst that I only managed to avoid the full bunt of; I could smell my leg burning a little. But I had an Idea I swung myself as I dodged another tentacle and a purposely aimed boulder that managed to smash through the roof. I aimed myself at Shane and just swung over him, narrowly avoiding a swipe of his flame sword Only by millimetres. I swung my hands so they were just in front of his stomach and outstretched a snare between my two hands, creating a clothesline for Shane's stomach. I shot a tentacle from my feet and ride my down force to create more thrust to throw Shane. Luckily my snare was constantly repairing itself with new ones because Shane was burning through the old ones rapidly. Just before I had enough I reached the apex of my swing, and thrust an unsuspecting Shane straight towards a surprised Kyle, that only just managed to avoid the full thrust of Shane's tumble because of his super speed. His arm was still smoking and looked savagely burnt. Shane then turned his attention trying to hit Kyle with his arms, who was deflecting it with his stick, but had to constantly renew it due to the fact that Shane's arms were burning the stick with every strike. Andy and Adem who were both massive behemoths in there own right were smacking each other around the room, and throwing each other creating massive craters of dents, in the floor, Adem looked stronger and a little faster, but wasn't impervious to damage as Andy was. And all Andy was doing was fighting Adem so he could get back to fighting Shane. At this point I was still hanging upside down by a snare created by my feet. I decided I would join the behemoth fight first, because Shane and Kyle were going to be a little more challenging, than a strict hand on hands battle. I swung myself a little and let out a snare from my hands so I flipped on the right side, I swung myself so my feet touched the roof and kicked off towards them, towards Adem's back, I decided I would try the same technique I did the last battle, and fashioned my hands into stabbing implements it worked exactly the same as last time, Adem arched up and roared in pain trying to clutch at his back, I flipped off and landed between Adem and Andy they were about three meters apart. And it was very intimidating being between these massive behemoths. My spider sense tingled again, and I looked towards Andy and he was about to thrust a massive boulder at Adem, the kind of boulders you see at the beach they use for walls and stuff. I had an idea, I was just wondering if I could pull it off. I swung a snare from under my wrist towards the boulder. I spiked my feet and dug them into the ground. When my snare managed to wrap itself around the boulder I was pulled forward with such force, it was like I was being thrown by Adem again. The boulder narrowly avoided Adem who was still recoiling from his back pain. I had to focus; I grabbed the snare with both hands and pushed back with all my might. The snare arched around in a circle as I was still dug in the ground I was creating a large gash in the floorboards the massive boulder flew straight into Andy's head knocking him off with an amazing amount of recoil sending him flying somewhere in the direction of Shane and Kyle. I squeezed down with all my muscles concentrating as much as I could. Just how strong am I anyway? The boulder was still flying in an arc that I spun around to hit Adem square in the chest. The sudden stop of the force sent both Adem and I recoiling into the mysterious invisible barrier of snake faction. I landed somewhere near the roof, in a rather awkward pose on my back. It felt like I had just been squashed into jelly. I coughed a bit, as I got a sense of my surroundings again. I looked down at Adem who had a massive dent in his chest; the black suit was flooding in odd blue veins to fix the dent as Adem breathed heavily. I looked over to Kyle and Shane. It was an intense three on three battle, Andy still had a dent in his head from where I hit him with that boulder, but he seemed to be coping fine. He had fashioned his fists into large boulders and was pounding the floor much like Adem was doing with me in the previous battle. Shane was dodging and flaming the joints of his arms in a brilliant move to target Andy's weak points, Kyle was zooming around all of them flipping and striking everybody kicking them off balance, tripping them and landing several shots square into the chest whenever he could. Not that it matters to someone who can grow a rock exoskeleton, or be birthed in living flame. But Kyle was doing damn well. I peeled myself off the barrier and snared myself to the roof and landed on top of it, looking upside down trying to asses the situation, I had little time to do so, Adem was striking at me from the ground putting several more holes in the ceiling so more sunlight shone through. I dodged, and dodged. And there was still more holes in the roof. It was time for offensive action. I kicked off in the same fashion, this time Adem was ready for me, and back handed me so landed somewhere to the right of him. It really hurt. I peeled myself off the floor just in time to dodge Adem's massive fist raining down on me.

"Ah man! Don't you ever die Adem! It's called a white flag, use it!" as I dodged more of his raining fists. I listened to my voice, it sounded so odd. Like it was coming from a megaphone of something, Adem laughed in that scary voice of his, and nodded. I jumped out of the way of another fist, and then lodged myself to his wrist I jumped away from it forcing it into the ground to give me some more time to reapply myself. I flipped so I was standing in the direction of the battle going on behind me, It was still in the same fashion as last time, except they were all moving a little slower obviously from exhaustion, I went to wipe my forehead, and met only with the hard metal like goo that was covering my face like a mask. I shook my head and remembered I was wearing my blood suit. My spider sense flared again and I noticed Adem lunging towards me. I had only one thing I could do. I couldn't dodge, he was too close. I decided to use Adem as a weapon. His fist smacked into my jaw and pushed me onto the ground, perfect. I had to wait for the right time. And then it happened. my body lying on the floor on my back shot out with hundreds of bladed tentacles they all penetrated Adem's black suit, that felt more like skin than my suit did, I concentrated more, and thrust the tentacles up as hard as I could Adem's massive hulk of a body was sent flying towards Shane, Kyle and Andy. Adem hit them like a bowling ball hitting some pins. They all slid on the ground, smashing into the wall near the entrance into the hall. Soon after a healing sphere appeared over Adem, I guessed over a hundred large fist sized wounds and being thrown over 10 meters across a stadium was too much for him. Wuss. It just left Andy Kyle and Shane all of whom were looking rather tired. As to which so was I, after that attempt of throwing over a ton of massive bulk over ten meters, I was exhausted. I was breathing heavily, and my standing was getting wobbly. Kyle got up first cracking his neck and dusting himself off. He had cuts all down his arms; part of his pants was torn off at the knee. The other was severed near the cuff or his leg, and there was a weeping wound under his left eye. He coughed and got to his hands and knee's to catch his breath, remarkably his hair was perfectly fine, as if nothing had ever happened but a little dust storm. Andy got up next, his rock form was looking totally worse for the wear, there were chips all over it, and it was staring to resemble less like a humanoid. His joints in his arms and legs were still throbbing warm. He pushed himself against a wall to catch his breath Shane squeezed under where Adem's massive arm had once pole drove him into the floor. He wasn't coated in fire anymore just his hair and his hands still were. He bent down on his hands and knees like Kyle. Smoke was smouldering from where his hands were still on fire, he was burning a hole in the floor boards, the floorboards caught on fire, and started racing up his arms, Shane smiled, and started laughing. The flames on the floor were growing larger he hand his hands panned out, absorbing the flames like he was an electrical conduit, the crowd started drumming along to a beat while Shane was laughing and drawing up more energy off the fire

"That's it! That's it! I think I've figured it out!" he was laughing as more and more flame was sucking into his suit. I had to stop it; he was going to burn the whole stadium if he kept going. And he was just getting more power hungry, besides he had a clear opening. I swung my hand towards him as it swung out stretching between the distance, and finally slapping Shane and pushing him off towards the wall. Shane yelled and grabbed my hand that was still holding him against the wall. And it got set on fire, it seared with pain. And the smell and smoke was horrendous. His hands burnt right through my stretched out arm. My hand dropped to the floor and dissipated into nothing, the severed part of my arm whipped back, suddenly as it was whipping back to me a stick stuck up halfway through, causing the severed arm to slap me back in the face before receding back to my body and returning my arm into its cruel claw and red arm. I noticed Kyle bending down still where that stick changed the direction to make me slap myself. Kyle laughed and pointed at me in a cruel way

"You know that's really dirty man!" Kyle shrugged and sped off in the direction of Shane. I composed my self and snared myself up into the roof. I guess they all caught their breath; the battle was starting to pick up again. The person looking the worse for the ware was Andy. Shane was still focusing on flaming only his joints, his arms were starting to over extend in the wrong way like a limp piece of play-do. I saw this as my chance to at least get one more person out of this battle. I leaped from the ceiling and spun into a ball. To increase my speed, velocity and the fact that I was spinning around was going to help as well. I saw a stick fly past me, a fireball hit me on the back. I shrugged it off. I spun out of my ball. And blended both of my hands into a massive sword, I slammed into Andy's white hot elbow joint. The blade sunk through it with a little amount of difficulty, I snared some lines to the ground to pull me to the ground easier. I finally landed. So did Andy's right arm, it wriggled around until it turned into a normal arm. Andy screamed in pain. He swang a massive left hook that I was ready for, I rolled out of the way and quickly through some snares around his wrist, I pulled the snares as hard as I could, the force of Andy swinging his arm against my pulling, severed his next arm in the most brutal way possible, he fell to the ground in a heap screaming about his arms until he went unconscious, seconds after the healing sphere came over him, and took to healing his hands perfectly back to normal. However now was just the exact thing I was hoping to avoid, there were three people left. Shane could only sustain a flame around his hands now. He was cut, bruised and as exhausted as we all were.

"Oh great, just happens to be us three doesn't it!" I said, in my weird echo voice. Kyle and Shane looked at each other and nodded. We didn't have enough energy for anymore theatrics; now it was time for simple hands on hand battle. I made the first move; I swung my hands towards the both of them. Grabbing them with my outstretched arms and then slapping them against each other, I back flipped while my arms were retracting, landing with both of my hands fashioned into blades. Kyle and Shane got up, and both jumped at me the same time. Shane's punches were landing and me leaving scorch marks every time he landed attacks on me. Kyle was a little bit harder every time I struck at him, he dodged it and came back using my attack against me. I was parrying there attacks, but I was losing. There attacks were pushing me to back step. I was losing. I was going to lose, I really wanted that money I really wanted that house. I really needed to win. This was the last time I was going to use my blood suit. I promised this to myself, and I thought to myself that I would be nice if stopped using it on a bang, stopped using it on a real big win. But it was only a matter of time until Shane's burning punches got the better of me. Or Kyle's strikes landed somewhere they shouldn't. I had to focus, I just needed time. I roared and sent a fair amount of tentacles in the front of me, several of them hitting Shane and Kyle and throwing them back a few meters. My advantages, I had to think what advantages I had over them. It was fairly obvious, I could regenerate at levels even above superhuman. Naturally loss of limb or head was still fatal. I imagined that if I got stabbed in the same place more than once it would probably be fatal. But I had that over Shane and Kyle. After a while Shane and Kyle got up. They looked at each other and nodded. I was still a bit annoyed that they were working against each other. But I suppose each of them saw each other as less of a threat. Shane assumed there was no point Kyle trying to attack someone he couldn't touch, and Kyle assumed that there was no point Shane trying to attack something he couldn't catch. I however was the catalyst I had taken both Kyle and Shane out before, and they needed me out before they could have an even match. I swung a rouge snare at both of them, which they managed to dodge and sever so I couldn't whip it back of them. Kyle yelled out "whoosh!" and started running around me creating a slipstream that was pulling at me from every angle; it was quite an odd feeling like I was being torn in a million different directions. Then the whirlwind around me turned to fire. I got it now; they were using the technique they used against ghost against me. I couldn't make it out the whirlwind it was burning too hot. And it was slowly encasing itself upon me. I had very little options I looked up to the roof to try and think of a way out. I couldn't snare directly up because there was a hole in the roof. There were already so many holes in the roof. Then I figured It out, it was going to take all my strength. But I had to try. I shot one snare up to the roof, two, more, a hundred I pulled myself up, constantly snaring more parts of the roof until I had a huge grab on the entire roof. I snared myself till I was floating about a meter away from the ground, but I was still rooted in. and then I pulled, with all the strength I could muster I pulled. For a while nothing happened but numerous amounts of my snares breaking, until large cracks started forming in the roof. I pulled harder. My arms felt like they were going to explode. And then finally the roof began to fall. In pieces and then all of it, I sling shotted myself through the hole that was on the top of me and as I floated in mid air watched an unstoppable amount of falling cement and rafters fall on Shane and Kyle, and there whirlwind firestorm. They both looked at each other and tried evasive manoeuvres, but It wasn't enough. Considering I had pulled most of the roof to fall at the exact spot where they were, they were both completely overwhelmed a healing sphere appeared around both of them before they could go unconscious. Rocks fell upon them, breaking on the healing sphere force field; they truly were a remarkable marvel of technology. Finally inertia caught up to me and began to plummet back down to the stadium. I landed between two hunks of massive cement and fell to the ground; I was completely and utterly exhausted. And with the applause of the crowd I activated my orange healing sphere, and spread myself across the ground. Surveying the damage, this had been the most brutal attack on a stadium I had ever seen not that I had seen many stadiums in my life time but even in reference to other battles we have held the damage was truly epic. There were dents, holes, burnt marks everywhere, not to mention a completely collapsed roof but I didn't care, I had manage to win. I had used my blood suit for the final time, and with it gained myself a totally new life away from the institute. I smiled and stayed lying on the floor letting the healing energy wash over me. It was finally over.

CHAPTER 23

Villains

The professor walked through the stadium leaving with him a remarkable wake of cleanliness and correctness; he even managed to fix the roof. The crowd went wild; everybody shook my hand and praised me on my job well done. Even Shane was impressed. Said he couldn't believe I collapsed the roof on them. We all stood in a line the crowd was going into fever pitch, I had never heard it so loud. And the part of the crowd that wasn't clapping insanely was still yelling

"Blood, blood, blood!" I blushed under all the gratuitous applause, I still wasn't used to fame, even if was being thrust upon me so suddenly, It didn't make it any easier for me. Once the professor had fixed the stadium he was looking quite exhausted, he had a bead of sweat running down his brow, his hair was a little messy, and his glasses were hanging lower on his nose than he normally would. Nevertheless he still kept on a brave face and walked to the middle of the stage to greet us. He smiled and raised a hand weakly to silence the crowd

"and wasn't that absolutely riveting…why I could say it bought the roof down!" a fair few people laughed, Kyle and I exchanged a face of utter "what the hell" however I don't think anyone found it as funny as the professor did he continued nevertheless

"and the winner, who had quite a…confusing start to the battle, but in the end came out on top (of a pile of rubble), was raven team's Navar Keelan, otherwise known as "blood" Navar, for your truly amazing win, you have won, a million dollars that will be placed in a trust fund under your name, a mansion on the Sydney harbour, and most importantly you have won, the precious artefact the lunatic Pandora, may you have the power of heart, or the strength of mind to discover it's secrets." The professor handed me the lunatic Pandora which I slipped into my pocket. Then somewhere from the other side of the room was Linda and Leigh they were yelling at me with all there might pointing at something, something to the professors left. I didn't get it, all that was at the professors left was Phoenix Madden. And then I saw it, he had taken off his headband and there it was, a fresh wound above his head, right were I struck the spectre, but there was no time to act, he had already made it to the professor

"Shut up you old fart!" his hand turned into a liquid blade and stabbed the professor right through the stomach. This made no sense. The crowd was going wild and people were running from the bleachers to attack phoenix madden as was I about to. The bastard, he just killed the professor, that kind hearted man that never wanted any harm to come of anyone. And he did it in front of hundreds maybe even thousands of people. That bastard stabbed the professor and he was going to pay. Phoenix's hand turned into hand again and he gestured at the crowds to stop

"Uh-uh, no more fighting kiddies" he placed his finger on his wristwatch, since when did phoenix have a wrist watch. We were all still rushing at him when suddenly our ears began ringing, our bodies became frozen, we couldn't move, everybody at the same time froze and fell to the ground exactly at the same time. Even the professor's healing shield had even been reverted, he made one last cough and stopped moving, I think he was dead, that fucking bastard killed the professor! Everyone was just standing there paralysed, nobody could move, nobody but me, I could fight it, for some reason I could fight it. Phoenix let out a loud evil laugh, until he saw I was standing, barely, but still standing. He sneered at me. And began to walk up to me, he kicked me onto the floor and began to speak

"Oh of course, you would still be standing wouldn't you, everybody's favourite aren't you, always everybody's fucking favourite!" he was mad. He had gone completely insane; there was no other explanation for it. Nor was there any explanation for how he managed to paralyse everyone with the touch of a button. I tried to squeeze out some words

"What the… hell are you on about you idiot!" phoenix laughed some more and kicked Shane and Kyle out of the way to get to me. How dare he kick my friends, how dare he kill the professor, ever since I met this man he has been a constant asshole to me, I wanted him dead. And now I was really going to do it. He placed his boot on my throat and laughed some more as he forced me down to the ground

"Still haven't worked out have you? Cant blame you really, you always were a bit of a dumbass, maybe that's why you got all the attention, everyone felt pity on your retarded ass." I couldn't focus right, he kept talking about things in past tense, things that didn't make sense, and he was crushing my neck I was finding it hard to get air in. I was losing consciousness, everything about me wanted to strike this man. But there was a ringing in my every muscle that was making it almost impossible to move. Until suddenly Phoenix took his foot of my neck and smiled.

"oh I suppose I might as well let you know my plan shan't I, seeming as it is all about you know, it was always about you" Phoenix was acting weird, even for phoenix, he was acting cruel and childish, he wasn't acting anything like himself.

"What are you talking about phoenix?" phoenix laughed and walked away from me enough. So that I could see his whole body as I was getting up, slowly getting up, and fighting every single muscular impulse that told me to stay down. He laughed and began to speak again

"funny you call me by that name, considering you would probably know me better as" a shimmer appeared around phoenix, and his whole body started changing, his cloak disappeared and so did an odd piece of thing resembling a snakeskin drop to the floor, what was left was black jeans, and large spiked boots, where there was once the top of his cloak and the labelled t-shirt, was now a black muscle top. With white pale muscular arms, where once was phoenix madden spiky brown/orange hair was a jet black Mohawk. What was once phoenix Madden's face now was now the Simkin's

"the…Simkin?" the Simkin, Sinder king the other boy that was in the hospital, in fact the room right next to me, that stupid loud kid, who was always banging things and yelling at people and being totally ungrateful for his right to be alive. Was now standing here in front of me laughing manically at me over all the hundreds of paralysed bodies lying on the floor. The last time I saw Sinder was when he ambushed me in my first power exploration class. After that I totally overwhelmed him and beat him to unconsciousness, after that I hadn't seen him since, I just imagined he was sent home. Or to a jail, probably where he belonged in the first place.

"Funny you used me by that name; I've always rather liked it. Even back when you used to mutter it back in the hospital, oh yes that hospital" I didn't understand any of why Sinder was doing any of this. It was so extreme, he wasn't going to get away with any of this and yet he didn't care, I just didn't understand. Sure we never like each other, but this was so extreme. He killed off possibly one of the smartest men in the world, for what? To get to me? It all seemed too unreal.

"Why, Sinder why?" Sinder paced the floor some more, kicking people as he walked past them, he walked with his arms stretched out as if he was about to give a heroic speech

"I already told you, because of YOU, that's right it's always because of you. Wasn't it? Back in the hospital you always got all the attention, everyone always payed more attention to you, they were always talking about how rare and unusual you were, and how it was a medical miracle you survived. Everyone's attention was always faced directly on you. Nobody cared that I was sitting in the next room dying of terminal cancer. No all they cared about your pathetic disease. And then one day the people that were keeping me alive, THAT WERE KEEPING ME ALIVE pulled the funding, saying that you were a more interesting case, and there was more to be learned from sponsoring you, rather than me. Don't you get it? your life was favoured over mine, it was always favoured, no one cared that I may of survived if I had enough help, no all they cared about was investigating you…and you weren't even going to live!" he was just blabbering, of course it was sad, but he was acting like a child that had been taken away his favourite toy, I wonder if he knew my funding had been pulled as well, that I had been sentenced to an earlier death as well. I tried to say something but I couldn't, the ringing in my ears was getting stronger. Sinder was still walking around, he came closer to me and kicked me on the ground again ruining all my work to stand up, he continued again

"And then imagine my surprise, my delight! When a mysterious enigmatic man comes to visit me one day, this Mr bennet, oh yes that's right your girlfriends daddy, says he's from something called the organization, and in return for curing my cancer all they wanted was my help. They said they said all I had to do was follow you to some institute, and apprehend you and bring you out of it, that's all they wanted…you, they said something about you containing the precious dna to bring them out of almost 30 decades of recession. Frankly I didn't care, it was the perfect offer, they could mysteriously cure my cancer, and in return all I had to do was follow you to some stupid institute, but when I healed. It dawned on me, I had to make this stop being about you, it was always about you, what didn't they understand about some poor pathetic cripple that could barely move his finger, I had to show them how weak you were. So when I was well enough, I blew up the institute, that's right it was me who caused that explosion! And so I trudge off to this Bennett's headquarters, expecting warm applause and accolades, and what do I get. They almost killed me, they told me again that I was the key to them instrumenting their plans; I was on the brink of death after they nearly tortured me to death. When I had a second chance, you had survived the explosion. They said that they would give me a synthesized mutant gene, and destroy all trace of me causing the explosion, and in exchange I had to give them what was due, I had to give them you." This was all too much, here was this lunatic parading around the hall kicking and maiming as many paralysed bodies as he felt like. Still playing like he was jealous child. But was more, the organization, the organization that was a plight of human existence themselves, the organization that phoenix, the man he made himself to look like helped with numerous amount of other superhero's put the organization into that recession Sinder mentioned earlier. What was even worse was that, the person who told Sinder to all this, to do all these horrible things, was Nikki's dad. I imagined that were she able to move, she would either be crying and vehemently denying Sinder's claims, more than likely both. What was even more mind bending was the fact that this was all about me, that I was somehow instrumental in there plans for world domination again, it was too unbelievable, but then again considering what the professor had told me about my blood and it's limitless possibilities, I suppose a company that chooses to extort the mutant gene could create thousands of super soldiers, from my blood. I had no choice I had to fight, for the professor, for the sake of everybody here, I needed to fight it. I noticed Sinder walking over to me again, he placed his large boot on my shoulder kicking me down, he stepped into my shoulder, but just not enough to make me bleed

"Im not done you idiot! So here I am, trailing off to some demented school with some synthetic mutant gene, all yet again, to apprehend YOU, ya see where Im coming from now? And so here I at this school, and foolishly I let my feelings get the better of me, I didn't know you had a power, all I knew was your blood was instrumental in there key, I didn't care, so I ambushed you and tried to take you in with a full frontal assault. And you beat me, half to death you beat me. I needed to escape, I needed a new plan where I could still beat you and make those idiots see the folly of there choice, and finally see that its not about you, so imagine my luck when I come across a girl that can hide in the shadows, literally melt into darkness. And so my mutant gene took over and yes, I murdered her and imagine my surprise when I find I can actually steal a person powers upon there death! Tsk the beautiful ones always go first don't they? And this was when my whole beautiful plan started. A plan where I could contain you, and better yet, finally claim all the glory, and not just the glory I would bring them the entire school, not just your pathetic self. The entire school! It was easy enough after I stole that girl' powers, I prowled around the school looking for a solution, and then imagine my surprise when a girl comes across my path that can literally turn into other people. But I still had too much heat from the last murder, I had to cover my tracks in this one, the plan came to me soon after, here was this phoenix madden, head of school security and worldwide war hero. Who would ever suspect him of crimes? And you know what was worse? He was the easiest to kill too! The old buffoon was so puffed full of his own ego that he didn't even suspect anyone to attack him, let alone a measly student. So with phoenix done, I went after the girl, using her powers I assumed the identity of phoenix. But not without first faking the…unfortunate death of the girl. This way no one would suspect foul play, and everyone was off my case. But this was not the most brilliant ace of my plan, you see Im quite intelligent, but you wouldn't know that because you're a dumbass, who spent what was it sixteen years in a bed? It doesn't matter. So now I have the perfect way to get around unsuspected, I can meld into shadow if I need to, and assume the identity of anyone I wanted. So I followed you to the mall on you precious little date, I figured why not ruin your life in the process, I may even land a lucky shot at you. But then that stupid personal shield got in my way didn't it, I had completely overseen them, I needed to find a way around those so I could finally get my hands around you, finally killing you showing those stubborn idiots at the organisation, that I am truly the prodigy they seek. And yet fate smiles on my again. Here is a child that can interface with machines himself, even more so interface with these wristbands. So I needed a plan, there had to be a way to make his death seem like an accident as well. But there was already two, three would start to seem like something was really going on, and begin to draw attention to the fact. And yet again, the perfect plan dawns on me, I wound him, just when neither the late professor nor that school nurse can heal him, because all there attention is focused on the match at hand, that they would not suspect someone else to suffer grievous injuries. And naturally it went off without a hitch, and who would suspect kind old war hero phoenix madden of foul play when he personally volunteered to help this "hacker" out of the school and back to his parents. And naturally when he didn't return they all thought he had gone home, but I can tell you this he didn't make it home." He had just confessed to three murders right in front of me, finally it all made sense, it explained why Phoenix Madden was such a bastard to me all time, and the shadows really were looking at me all time. That's why people were looking at me weird at the shopping mall they were all Sinder, he was cold, heartless and so small and childish, he had killed three people, three people just so he could prove his superiority and his worth to an organization that only works to extort mutants to there own needs.

"So…it was you…who cut off my hand" I said still trying to fight against this harsh grip on all my muscles. Sinder laughed and walked back over to me laughing as he kicked me down again

"Oh yes, that was me, and can I just say how absolutely satisfying it was to do that, so I had another idea through all my brilliant brainstorming, if not there power, why not just try stealing yours, surely me with your powers would give them such a better shining example of someone who deserved them more, but you resited that didn't you, quite the stubborn one aren't we? Yes I think you remember those two times my other alter ego the spectre tried to steal your powers don't you? Funny it transforms me into that when I steal powers, but naturally of course that didn't work, so I needed to focus again" I thought to myself that finally something else made sense, it explained those two times I had fainted.

"But this brings me to my next point. You had recovered from me severing your hand; hell you had even bounced back better from it not to mention my trying to steal your powers as well. It was then when I was starting to believe you were more formidable than you first let on. But because of this I figured out this, I figured how to catch the entire school in one foul swoop. And don't you see, it's these, these wristwatches, there all connected you know, every single one of them to everyone of you here. The inhibitors were already in place. I just needed a time to make sure the professor would be off guard, you see he had a safety override that controls the frequency of the inhibitor blocking system so It makes it non lethal. So I just chose a time when he would be exhausted and off guard. And you did that for me didn't you, you sure fucked up this place, would of taken a lot of energy to fix this I can tell you. So now I have the genetic data and sample genetically stored in this wonderful wristwatch of mine, after I kill you, I simply make my way back, and finally the thanks, praise and glory I deserve…oh and finally it will be about me IT'LL BE ABOUT ME!!!" he was absolutely criminally insane, he had to be stopped. But no one could move except me. I knew I could move because the inhibitors responded to deactivating the mutant gene, I however had billions, so it couldn't get a firm hold on everyone of them, problem was I could only just move. I still couldn't fight. For the sake of humanity itself he had to be stopped. I tried my hardest to get up, pushing against everything I had. I managed to get onto my feet. But it felt like there was a ton of weights pushing me down, I was the only hope they had, I had to try I just had too. Sinder noticed me managing to stand up and clapped

"oh of course, look everybody wonder boy has managed to stand up, you know you manage to prove me wrong at everyone of my assumption of your power every time, but I am going to kill you. And to show you how serious I am. As if the professor wasn't enough. Your going have to watch this" he clicked his fingers, and then from within his fingers appeared Kovu; oh no he had somehow managed to find Kovu. But surely he wasn't low enough to murder a defenceless animal, but how wrong I was, Kovu was still squirming and meowing when he tuned his arm into a spike about the size of a finger, and drove it straight through Kovu's chest, he then laughed again and chucked my now dead cat away, he managed to land in a slump right next to the professor, there pools of blood managing to meet within seconds. I couldn't focus on anything anymore; all this man who stood in front of me had done, all in the name just to cause me pain. Why? Because he was jealous, he had murdered people taken the lives of people, not even people defenceless animals, all in the name of his own fucking retarded delusions of grandeur, I was literally blinded by rage. It didn't matter to me if I used my blood suit again, I had to. I had to end the life of this horrible human being in front of me. The Simkin had to die! I turned my hand into a blade, but all I could muster was a crude dagger, it didn't matter it was still enough, I sliced my chest open again, and the blood flowed out, it was harder and process was painful and slow. But when it finished I had enough strength to move freely enough, enough strength to maybe move as fast a rather well fit geriatric, it was enough. But then a thought occurred to me, this was all because of these wrist bands right? I stuck at mine with blades but to no avail. I even tried retracing my hand just above it so it just fell straight off, but I couldn't transform like that, my body still relied and a simple humanoid structure. So I focused on the next closest thing I could. Sinder; I ran towards him, he just laughed at me and clapped a little, I turned to strike him he dodge and cut my hand off with one of his blade hands. I finally realised something then and there. This blood suit really was a culmination of the first powers I had ever absorbed. My tentacles were off the girl with the whip hair, my inhuman strength was from Leigh and his ability to tap into the attributes of animals, but at that point was only able to siphon the strength of a bear, my inhuman speed and agility came from Kyle and his at that point overactive speed. And my ability to mould my hands into weapons and the like came from Sinder. I finally understood what the professor meant by my powers only growing stronger along certain parameters. But it still didn't matter, all that matter was that the Simkin was dead, a lunged weakly at him again, he dodged it again and sliced my back

"Ahahahah oh this is fun! We really should do this more often shouldn't we wonderboy? nothing like slicing and dicing a pathetic attempt of a hero to get your moods up in the morning, let me know where your finished playing so I can just kill you and get this show on the road" I hated his voice, I hated his stupid beady little brown eyes, I hated his retarded Mohawk and his pale white skin. I have never hated someone so much in my life, I didn't matter to me, and nothing mattered as long as that man was punished for what he has done. No one deserves the right to take human life. No one! I lunged at him again with both hands. He just jumped over me kicking me down to the ground. I got up and tried to snare him with a tentacle, it came out the suit went a meter in front of me then shrivelled. I really was fighting a losing battle, I lunged at him again from the left, and he just dodged me and kicked me to the side. Then mysteriously flung a blue flame ball into the side of my stomach

"don't you see, in this wristband contains a small amount of everyone's powers, even your friend the blue flame over there, how do you even think you can beat me, you move barely faster than a dead man" he was right, this battle was impossible to win, he had a tiny percentage of everybody's power in this entire room. It didn't matter to me, I was either going to kill him or die trying. I lunged at him again he dodged the attack and placed his hand on my chest laughed and flung we twenty meters across the hall, slamming me into a wall. I got up and noticed something, I was starting to feel more fatigued than ever and my blood suit was starting to fade, it was receding near the finger tips it was starting to get harder to move, Sinder laughed from the other side of the hall and looked at me,

"I hoped you didn't like…Lililth" whoever Lililth was he just stabbed her through the heart, the only difference from before was now there was a pool of blood seeping from her back. I didn't know what to do, my blood suit was failing me and I was finding it hard to move again, I didn't even know if I could cross the distance to make it to Sinder but he had to be stopped, he was now killing off innocent people, just to make me more angry, I had just passed where Kovu and the professor laid my blood began to boil, it made me more angry than I ever was before. Finally it dawned on me, the answer, a chance, blood! I didn't care of the repercussions of it anymore I focused on my blood tried to feel every vein and artery and then I tried to picture it eating my skin and my flesh, I willed it too, with my every being, the effect was amazing, my blood felt like it was happy it felt like it was finally doing what it always wanted too. My blood suit erupted in a mass of tentacles they arched back and slammed into me, I was being attacked by my own blood suit, I fell to the ground the weird joyous feeling was over coming me, tentacles were still slapping me when I passed out. I can't believe I passed out a time like this.

I opened my eyes I was still alive, I felt different, stronger, lighter, as if I had just lost all substance. I looked at my arm it was still there, I was still wearing the blood suit I stood up, my legs felt like they were the most muscular they could of ever been, like if I smashed down hard enough I could kick down this entire floor. I looked at my body, it was constantly moving, shifting, little blood bursts were arcing over my body everywhere, my entire body looked like it was water boiling over, I looked over to a very confused look Sinder

"And what the hell is this?" I kept walking slowly towards Sinder. It was over I wanted him dead, and I had so much extrasensory perception now I wasn't sure if I could ever be caught by surprise. I walked past the pool of blood left by that girl he first stabbed, and looked at myself in the reflection, I had a darker look about me, my mouth was black with rows of white teeth, there was a small snake like tongue licking around in my mouth, my hands hang thing long cruel fingers least several inches longer than they usually would be, with brutal bladed tips on each of them, my elbows had a point on them, and my whole body had an odd fiery luminesce to it. I felt stronger and more amazing than I ever had before.

"I am going to kill you Simkin" and I had every intention of doing just that. Sinder smiled and laughed at me and walked closer to me, so he was facing me. I was almost two heads taller than him. When he got closer I could feel his blood, it was odd, and I could hear it, like it was in the back of my mind.

"Oh really! You kill me? Im not scared of your stupid cheap parlour tricks" he laughed again and tapped his wrist watch there was a vibration somewhere near where I had passed out. It was my wristwatch I had shed it! I was free of his stupid power inhibitors; what's more I had taken my next step in my evolution that the professor insisted I take. I guess in a way this was an honour to him. Sinder back stepped a little and smiled. He took a swipe at my stomach with his blade; I closed my eyes and waited for the pain. Nothing the sword passed right through, and then Sinder went to punch me with a metal fist it landed on my solid chest, making him recoil his fist. I laughed in enjoyment. He was finally getting what was coming to him and there was nothing he could do to stop me! I was right now blood incarnate, yet I was still walking talking and for what I could tell breathing, none of it made any sense but it didn't matter I had the means to what I really wanted to, I got to avenge those this bastard killed in cold blood, all to get the better of me in his retarded vendetta to prove he was better than me. Sinder flipped backwards. Obviously he wasn't going out without a fight. His arms turned to rock, and his fists birthed themselves in blue flame. His Mohawk spikes began to whip and grow out of his head like they were alive. And to top it all off he grew large wings, which he then turned black. He laughed at me and flew up in the sky, I stood there, I still didn't really know what to do with all the power that was on offer to me, it was like being at a smorgasbord of food and not knowing what to eat because there were so many choices. That reminded me, I should really go to an all-you-can-eat buffet sometime. There was a loud noise coming from ceiling, he was using the sonic booms against me that the girl in my power exploration class had. They were doing very little to me but making some of my body shake in the wind like if you got a blow drier on a body of water. He suddenly swooped at me placing bladed wings under my head as if to sever to my neck from my head. It did nothing but pass through. He landed back on the ground, and turned his hands back to blades. I summoned some tentacles to help defend me, I looked at my tentacles, they really looked alive this time, and they had a mouth full of teeth and were swinging out like snakes in every direction. Simkin and I rushed at each other, his hair whipped at me, meeting my tentacles in a savage fight above our heads he swung a metal sword through me, it did nothing again, I punched him with an uppercut that flew him several meters into the next wall of a bleacher. Sinder got straight back up and cracked his neck. And returned himself to normal, he smiled and cracked his neck, and put his finger to his head. He summoned a small amount of vertigo's power making an illusion of everyone around me dying, but there was something about my suit, it let me sink further inside it, as if to make it look like I was seeing through a window and not experience it. The Simkin yelled in anger, I think he was getting annoyed that he only had a small amount of people's power, it just wasn't enough to do anything substantial with, all he had was the powers he when he killed people at full power, and three of them were completely useless at this point. Until he screamed in rage and erupted in flame again. He was calling on phoenix's power the fire bird appeared in front of me. I knew exactly how to beat this bird but how. I stretched to tentacles to sneak around the floor looking for its new targets, The Simkin created a firestorm that was setting my suit on fire at little points but it was doing very little else than create an odd smell. My body was constantly shifting and when a flame landed on my body, my suit either ate the flame itself of just healed itself under the flame so it had no root. Finally my tentacles had found their targets. I placed one tentacle over Crispin black, and one over Shane, hopefully this worked. I placed my hands up ready to make a fire blast I could feel both Crispin and Shane's powers flowing through me, I tried my best not to take it on permanently, I just wanted it while I was touching them, and then suddenly as if sucking water from a hose, my hands erupted with flame, and a green mist from the other hand creating a massive fire blast of green flame that erupted around the fire bird oddly extinguishing its flames. Sinder was still coated in green flame, he crawled up into a ball on the ground and screamed in pain until slowly the flames receded, obviously he had a little bit of the power to control green flame as well. It just took him longer. Sinder got up and cracked his neck his skin still smouldering while it was slowly healing itself. He was angry, he had an more determined and evil look in his eye than he did before

"Why the fuck wont you just die! It was a perfect plan! It couldn't fail…but no you just had to go and live up to everyone's goddamn expectations didn't you, ahh! Just fucking die!" he screamed at me and charged forming a wide metal wedge with his hands. A dodged it easily and created two snares around the ankle's of his feet and flicked himself from under him and threw him somewhere into the lion bleachers. I was going to make him pay the worst way possible. It was weird; I could sense and feel all the people's different heartbeats and the way the blood flowed through them, like an extra sense, a blood sense. I was interrupted by Sinder laughing a maniacally as he was when he had the upper hand. He stood up and kept laughing and fashioned his hand into a crude stabbing implement. I had no idea what he was laughing about, I had him totally overpowered he had no trump card. Yet he kept laughing until he stopped to taunt me in his cruel whiny voice

"Do you know who this is Keelan, do you know who it is you just happened to drop me next too. Josh cook baby! Oh yeah!" Oh no, he landed near josh, and without little warning he stabbed the stabbing implement straight into josh's chest, his shirt started to run with blood. And within seconds Sinder began to laugh manically again. His hands began to glow a little until he squeezed them again and then looked at me

"Excellent" he ran up and jumped a massive jump, landing just in front of me about a meter away.

He kept laughing and pacing near me, still laughing I wasn't going to make a move, he could be volatile, I just stood and waited for my chance

"How about plan two; hey plan B's a ripper. If at first you can't win…Blow the fuck out of everybody! You hear that Keelan, everyone here is going to die! Your precious little girlfriend, that arrogant dick friend of yours, that guy with the weird hair and a tail, the psychic girl, the farm boy and the other guy…animal boy, oh and not just oh yeah baby everybody… and you know who, the piece of resistance to all this you. You're going to die too! I don't care if I die proving my cause correct. Hell I might even survive I don't care! Your going to die Navar Keelan, that'll prove that stupid organization who was right!" this was the most possible worse case scenario I could think of, he was going to blow up with everyone in this room. Taking everyone I cared away from me. I just couldn't let him, but how to stop him. The Simkin paced the room starting glow redder and redder. And laughing, always just laughing. I couldn't stand it. It had to end. I lunged forward landing close to him. I could feel his heart speeding up. It was getting faster every second as he was laughing. I delved deeper into the sense until I could feel each blood cell running around his body, I focused on the heart, I stopped it beating but it wasn't enough, he coughing and choking he fell to the floor, but he was still getting hotter. I tried a last ditch effort i snared hundreds of tentacles into his body, they were burning and getting very hot, it didn't bother me, pain wasn't like pain anymore. It was more like an indication of what should have been there, it didn't hurt as such, it was just telling me that before this would have felt like burning. I summoned all my strength and split the sim kin clean in half, severing his body completely in half and threw each piece a different direction and threw them with all my might out of the roof. Sinder had an absolutely surprised look on his face the bloody mass hit a terminal velocity and broke through the cement of the roof, but not before I managed to cut off on of his hands just above his wristband I wasn't going to take any risks about what would happen, he said it himself these things were connected. I couldn't see anything for a while but minutes later I heard a loud boom from somewhere in the distance. It shook the very fabric of the hall and maybe even the institute, I took a deep breath. I had defeated the Simkin. At the lost of my humanity and my identity I had managed to save everybody. I had achieved what I wanted with all my heart to do. The hero had defeated the villain. But what good was it all? Several people were dead, including josh, Kovu and even the professor. Those people were never going to come back. What was going to happen to me now, what was going to happen to the institute. I stabbed a tentacle through the simkin's wristband I guessed wristbands severed from a human host weren't as impervious to damage as they usually were. And stood there, I just stood there in this stadium full of a mixture of dead bodies, and paralysed people. My blood moving and constantly changing and I just stood there. It was all I could do

CHAPTER 24

Heroes

I was still standing there when everybody started to stir; I guessed I had reversed the paralysation by destroying Sinder's wristband. I went over to where Shane was he rolled over and looked at me

"You saved us man, you saved us all…" he tried to get up and rolled back onto the floor trying to get back some of his energy, everyone was still pretty tired. Everyone was moving, but everyone seemed hurt, okay but still everyone was hurt, there was nothing to do I imagined they would heal in time. I heard a voice call out from somewhere near the raven faction. It sounded like Nikki, I went to walk over there until I looked at my hand again, and it was still this new blood identity. I didn't want her to see me like this, no one could love something like this, I was a monster, I had saved the world, but it didn't change the fact I was still a monster. I had to focus, I focused on my hand it turned instantly back to my human hand as was the same for my entire body, I looked every bit as human as I ever was. Even more of what the professor said made sense to me now, he was totally right, he was right all along. I was completely human. But I could form a spike straight out from my stomach, I could punch through myself if I wanted to, it was amazing, this was truly a wondrous step in evolution. I walked over to the professor…if only he was here to see this. I looked down in the pool of blood and then realised I was naked. I had no clothes, all the people that were able to move themselves, could now see my naked body. It was like a horrible dream I didn't want to live. I thought about clothes, any clothes, my clothes were all the way over there. And when I looked back I was wearing clothes, the same clothes I wore before I changed in the uniform, I smiled this was an amazing evolution, I couldn't believe the power I had. I ran over to Nikki, I helped her up, and she concentrated as hard as she could with healing herself I looked at her

"You think you could do that to everyone?" she shook her head, she had tears streaming her face, and her eyes were bloodshot and red

"No, I could barely do it then. I think everyone's mutant gene is in like shock or something…oh navvy that was horrible" she pushed her face into mine and started crying my shirt was almost drenched in a line from her tears, I still didn't even understand, was this a t-shirt I was wearing or could my blood just simply reshape its molecules into simple cotton and like polymers? I imagined that was it, the professor said before that my blood could absorb limitless amounts of elements and fibres, considering that it wasn't that far fetched. I dragged Nikki over to where Kovu and the professor were. I grabbed Kovu's body his fur was stained with blood. I used my blood sense to pull it out his fur so it was clean; there was little else I could do. Nikki and I just sat against a wall waiting for everyone to regain control of there bodies. While I pat a dead cat that, that bastard killed in cold blood.

Finally when everyone had regained control of there bodies we got all of the dead people and placed them in a line. I cleaned up the blood so it didn't look so brutal, we all stood around them in a circle and nobody could muster anything to say but "are they really gone?" "I can't believe he killed Nav's cat" "that was horrible…and looked he killed the professor" and things of the such. Mr Jackson stepped into to say something. His hair was fuzzy and matted and he had bloodshot eyes.

"Today has been a terrible day, a terrible day for us all. But because of the valiant boy we have all managed to keep our lives. Others were not so fortunate others did not have the fortune of being looked over by that foul evil. Today we morn the momentous loss of too many lives" Mr Jackson continued to explain the names and values of each of those that had been killed by the Simkin I was looking for my old clothes; you know when I needed clothes? I found what I was looking for. If the professor was going to be buried he could be buried with this precious artefact he was so proud of. The lunatic Pandora, I ran over and broke through the crowd, and placed the lunatic Pandora on the professor's chest In its red box.

"And lastly the momentous and amazing loss of a man so valuable to society, so kind, so caring and noble he will be missed for centuries past. Horaitio gast had a dream, and his dream was this institute where people like us, special. Could live and habituate in peace." I placed a hand on the professors' chest right next to the box that had the lunatic Pandora. The box started to shake. It vibrated violently; there was an audible sigh of awe from the massive circle surrounding me. The box disintegrated into dust and then exploded in a white gentle yellow light, the half crescent shaped rock was floating above the bodies. It grew so violently. And then out it came a little yellow orb, and then another, and another the tiny yellow orbs flew into all of the dead bodies. And strangely one into me as well, it felt warm and fuzzy, and it could feel it sitting there inside me. All the dead bodies suddenly burst into life. That crazy rock actually brought the professor, Kovu, josh and everyone back alive! All of Sinder's work had been undone. I had been so happy we all waited for them to clearly come too. I picked Kovu up and patted him and I wouldn't let go no matter what. After a long time of coughing and everyone cracking around there necks the professor finally spoke. Most of us started to sit down

"And so it was you who was destined to find the true power of the lunatic Pandora, take it back boy it may still prove its worth. Before anyone asks me, for some reason I know all of what happened, I don't know why but I remember everything from when I got stabbed by well… young Sinder to just before I was revived, I am sorry children, but It seems a great plight of society has now reared its ugly tyrannic evil head, please know that the organization must be considered evil at all costs, no matter what deals they offer you it is only to justify there own means and nothing more. But never mind the proper authorities will be warned. And it will be taken care of a soon as I leave this hall. However on a more fastidious note, Mr Keelan you managed to save us all. I do believe you more than deserve your prizes you won. Not only did you manage to win that truly epic match against all your friends. But you also managed to defeat "the Simkin" while all of us were incapacitated. And stopped any of the organizations plans coming to fruition, I imagine your story will be told for a long time Navar, years from now I could even imagine a Faction being made in your favour, Navar from the bottom of my heart please accept my most gratitude and Im sure this goes for everyone here, Navar…you saved us all, however if you will all excuse me I must quickly warn the proper authorities! Ladies, gentlemen congratulate your savoir, Jackson, Crispin would you please join me? " the faculty heads that were left walked off to where I wasn't sure. But I was rushed by a sea of people wanting to touch me, and talk to me, shake my hand, hug me, offer me things they owned. Kiss me on the cheek. It was all a bit to much.

After everyone had settled down, I had some business I needed to take of before the holidays started I found Linda and Leigh first

"Guys?" they both looked at me and hugged me a little. And Linda started to cry a little

"Oh nav! He actually stabbed Kovu just to prove a point! That kid was horrible! Absolutely horrible!" Linda wiped her eyes and threw herself into a hug, Leigh placed a hand on her shoulder and rubbed it

"Nav seriously if we can do anything you man, you were amazing out there man, you seriously saved us all" there actually was something they could do for me.

"Actually there is something you guys can do for me" Linda pulled herself away from me and wiped her eyes and looked into my eyes

"Name it navvy, anything" I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly and than stared seriously into there eyes

"I want you guys to move in with me in my new house" they both looked at each other then at me. Linda started to cry again, and they both hugged me. And just kept saying thank you, I told them that they were more than welcome and I moved onto where Adem was staring at the ground still he saw me and shook his head while he was looking at the ground

"I could not do anything Navar, all those innocent people were going to die, and there was not a thing I could do, thank god for you Navar, you are the kindest and most powerful person I have ever met Navar Keelan" I blushed fully. I didn't know what to say, I don't think I have ever had much higher compliment

"Hey…uh Adem I was wondering if there was something you could do for me?" Adem stared into my eyes with an amazing amount of sincerity I had never seen in someone's eyes before. He placed a hand on my shoulder

"Whatever I can possibly do for you, I will do" I laughed a little

"Adem…I would like you to move in with me, in my new house the one in Sydney" Adem looked shocked, he blushed a little and nodded at me, and drew me into a hard hug that felt defiantly solid

"You feel softer than before Navar Keelan" I shrugged at Adem and told him that I needed to move on. I found my way to Kyle and Shane who were still trying to talk josh into some sense

"Hey guys…" they turned around and both there faces lit up

"Nav, you-"said Kyle just before Shane interrupted him

"Nav man you like totally, wow" said Shane

"You saved us all nav, and now you got these totally new powers! So that bastard knew you from back at the hospital hey? He was like a jealous child eh… really immature ey" I nodded at Kyle but I couldn't reply coz Shane had already started talking again

"I can't believe that guy I seriously can't. He used our powers against you, not even that he murdered people; he actually killed people, for like practically nothing! Dude that fucking dickhead killed your cat just to get a rise out of you, he stabbed the professor. For fuck sake he stabbed josh!" said Shane throwing his hands angrily at josh who was sitting in a corner shaking

"He…he stabbed me, I…I was dead nav, and then…he tried to go boom! He tried to go boom! But no you saved us all…saved us all…" josh was acting very strange but before I even had to ask Kyle answered my question

"Josh isn't taking the whole dying thing very well…come to think of I don't know how I could cope either. Anyway nav what did you want?" I grabbed both Shane and Kyle by the shoulder and made it so they faced them

"Guys, I want you to move in with me, for the holidays, I want you to live with me. Like after you see your parents and stuff" Kyle and Shane looked at each other and then back at me

"Nav you serious?" asked Shane, I nodded at them

"Yeah ok, ill do it, Ill still want to see my parents for a little bit, but yeah nav Ile move in." said Kyle, as he grabbed me in the shoulder in thanks

"My dad's back in America with that stupid bitch Andy's mum, so yea Im totally in dude" said Shane. I snuck a look though to josh

"You two josh if you want, Kane as well" I looked around the room I couldn't see them.

"Hey guys, have either of you seen nikki or Kovu?" Shane and Kyle both shrugged at each other. I couldn't imagine where they would be, but no one had left the stadium, and I couldn't see her in any of the bandstands. Nor could Kovu get up there I didn't think. I was close to the raven stand so I searched behind it. there they were, Kovu was curled up next to nikki who was patting him and still crying, I walked up to her cautiously

"Nikki what's wrong why are you still crying? She wiped off her eyes and looked up at me and then begun to cry, but she was still talking

"Didn't you hear that bastard, it's my father Navar! My father! He was the one that pushed that Sinder into doing all of this! My father! That was that big corporation he was working for, the one he had to move to Sydney to manage…nav don't you understand, I have to go home, to the man that forced Sinder to do all this! I have a sister nav, what do you think jade's going to do about all this" I bent down and pulled Nikki into my chest

"Did you ever consider that, that fucking Simkin was just lying to make me angry?" she wiped off her tears and looked at me and shrugged

"Hey look, you can come and stay with me for a bit ok? At that new house, and then we sort it out from there ok? And if your dad is part of the organization well then he's going to get in my plans" Nikki wiped the tears off her face and looked up at me

"Why what plans?" I looked at her with every ounce of fierce determination I could muster

"Nikki, Im going to take down the organization, I don't care, they are going to pay for everything, for everything they did, for everything their trying to do, for everything their going to do! Hell even for manipulating the Simkin, all I can say is. Im going to get them Nikki. Im going to take down the organisation…"

The end.

Next; generations book two

Nav takes on the organization

editing notes: change all house name's to factions change andy's name to obelisk instead of golem. Re-write Navar gene code. Fuck what else write in about how much ive changed like letting go of constants, and my change between since the hospital, in the section where Im sitting alone in the hall before second battle. Change the facility's name to the institute edit Shane's history a little bit to keep in retrospect with the whole Andy half brother angle. Write in why Adem wasn't in oceanic region of power exploration class. Write in Simkin tries to steal my power.


End file.
